The sentence is a basic unit of thought. No composition can succeed unless it is made up of correct, clear, and effective sentences.
A sentence is a group of words that expresses a complete thought and can stand alone. Every grammatical sentence must have a subject (expressed or understood) and a predicate.
I don’t believe in the goodness of disagreeable people. — О. Dewey
A fragment is a separated sentence part that does not express a complete thought. Dependent clauses, verbal phrases у and appositive phrases are common types of fragments. These elements must not be punctuated as sentences.
Nehemiah sought God’s will for four months, before he knew exactly what God wanted him to do. (dependent clause fragment)
Taylor stayed up late. Working on an overdue assignment. (participial phrase fragment)
They all went to the airport. To bid goodbye to their friend. (infinitive phrase fragment)
The detective discovered the thieves’ hideout. An old abandoned house on the edge of town. (appositive phrase fragment)
A fragment can often be corrected by simply rejoining it to the sentence from which it has been separated. Notice the way the examples have bee corrected.
Nehemiah sought God’s will for four months before he knew exactly what God wanted him to do. (corrected)
Taylor stayed up late, working on an overdue assignment. (corrected)
They all went to the airport to bid goodbye to their friend. (corrected)
The detective discovered the thieves’ hideout, an old abandoned house on the edge of town. (corrected)
Note. Sometimes words may need to be added or deleted and the fragment made into a separate sentence.
One of my friends, who won a contest by playing a variety of instruments. (fragment — the independent part of this group of words has no predicate.)
One of my friends won a contest by playing a variety of instruments. (corrected—the subject of the dependent clause has been removed.)
One of my friends, who won a contest by playing a variety of instruments, has decided to become a conductor. (corrected—A predicate has been added to fill out the independent clause.)
I recently conversed with a prominent senator. Who thinks that we should bargain from a position of military strength. (dependent clause fragment)
I recently conversed with a prominent senator. He thinks that we should bargain from a position of military strength. (corrected—the relative pronoun who has been replaced with the personal pronoun he. Now the group of words can stand alone as a complete sentence.)
