How to Correct a Sentence Fragment in Your Text
Sentence fragments, also known as incomplete sentences, are a common mistake even experienced writers make. To identify and correct fragments you need to know everything you can about incomplete sentences or use a fragment detector to eliminate this type of error.
What is a sentence fragment?
A: If you want to know how to fix a fragment in an essay or some other text you must first understand what it is. There are three things a sentence needs in order to be complete. It requires a subject which is the person or thing performing the action, a verb which is the action being performed and it must express a complete thought or idea. A phrase lacking one or more of these elements is considered a sentence fragment as it cannot stand on its own as a complete sentence. The following are some examples of sentence fragments:
- Running down the road.
- Until the judge walked into the room.
- Clothes and toys scattered around the room.
How do you know if a sentence is a fragment?
A: You can recognize sentence fragments because they will be lacking either a subject or a verb or they will fail to express a complete thought. A sentence fragment won’t be able to stand on its own as a complete sentence. If you are unable to detect sentence fragments on your own, you can use an “is this a sentence fragment checker” to help you identify incomplete sentences.
What are the four types of sentence fragments?
A: There are four basic reasons that cause a phrase to be a fragment rather than a complete sentence:
- No subject: a group of words that lacks a subject is a fragment. Example: “Ran around the track.” The reader doesn’t know who or what ran around the track because the subject is missing. Adding a subject will correct the mistake. “The girl ran around the track.”
- No verb: a phrase that lacks a verb is an incomplete sentence. Example: “Clothes and toys scattered around the room.” By adding a verb the error is corrected. “Clothes and toys were scattered around the room.”
- No subject or verb: a group of words that lack both a subject and a verb is a sentence fragment. Example: “Off the table.” The reader doesn’t know who/what performed the action or what was done. A subject and verb are required. “The ball rolled off the table.”
- Subordinate clauses: subordinate or dependent clauses are phrases that contain both a subject and a verb but don’t express a complete thought. Example: “Until the judge walked into the room.” To correct this type of sentence fragment an independent clause must be added either before or after the subordinate clause to make it grammatically correct. “The accused remained in his chair until the judge walked into the room.” Alternatively, you could write “Until the judge walked into the room the accused remained in his chair.”
What are the most effective ways to fix sentence fragments?
A: To fix a sentence fragment you will need to add a subject, a verb or an independent clause to the fragment, depending on what type of fragment it is. The most effective method to do this is to use a fragment and comma splice checker to detect and correct mistakes. This tool is a fragment fixer that detects incomplete sentences and provides suggestions on how to correct them. Using a sentence fragment fixer online is fast and ensures no incomplete sentence is overlooked.
About Our Fragment Sentence Checker
Our fragment and run on sentence checker is an online writing tool that both detects sentence fragments and provides suggestions on how to correct them. It also functions as a run on sentence checker to assist you with identifying and correcting comma splices and fused sentences. The fragment checker online writing tool we offer is an effective and fast method for correcting fragments and run-ons in paragraphs no matter what type of text you want to check. The sentence fragment corrector works equally well for academic papers and essays, articles, blog posts, memos, letters, emails or any other type of writing. Not only is our sentence fragment finder the best way how to fix fragments and run on sentences, but it also boasts a number of other great editing features. It serves as a dictionary checker, spelling checker, punctuation checker and examines your text for word usage. Our writing tool also identifies whether you are using active or passive voice in your text and what tone you are using and provides suggested adjustments you can make to achieve the correct voice and tone to most effectively deliver your message to the reader. To top things off our sentence corrector is both fast and easy to use. You can perform an analysis of your text just by taking these easy steps:
- Enter your text. Just copy and paste your text into the provided field.
- Begin the text analysis. Click the button to start analyzing your text
- Receive completed analysis. Within a few seconds to a minute, you will receive a report identifying sentence fragments, run on sentences and other types of errors in your text. The report will include suggested corrections and adjustments you can make.
- Complete the suggested corrections and adjustments
Advantages of Using Our Sentence Fragment Identifier
There are a number of significant advantages of using our sentence fragment identifier rather than proofreading and editing your writing manually. These include:
- Proofread for multiple types of errors at one time. Generally, when proofreading manually you have to go through a paper several times looking for different types of mistakes. With our tool, you can check for fragments, run on sentences, spelling mistakes, errors in punctuation and other types of grammatical errors all at once.
- Suggests corrections. Our sentence fixer suggests corrections to be made. Manual editing requires you to figure it out on your own.
- No human error. When proofreading and editing manually, human error is a factor. You may overlook mistakes due to being in a hurry, carelessness or not recognizing an error.
- Speed. Our sentence corrector generally analyzes your text in a minute or less and suggests needed corrections. This could take hours doing it on your own.
With all these advantages there is no reason not to try our fragment detector on your next writing assignment!
