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Sentences and style

Learn about English sentence rules and style suggestions to help you become a more confident writer

Sentence fragment

A sentence fragment is an incomplete sentence:

Fragments are incomplete sentences. Usually, fragments are pieces of sentences that have become disconnected from the main clause. One of the easiest ways to correct them is to remove the period between the fragment and the main clause. Other kinds of punctuation may be needed for the newly combined sentence. (Purdue University, n.d., para. 1)

For example: Making up her mind quickly. Kim decided to buy the red car. (Correct version: Making up her mind quickly, Kim decided to buy the red car.)

For more information regarding sentence fragments, please refer to Sentence Fragments and/or The OWL at Purdue: Sentence Fragments.

Reference

Purdue University. (n.d.). Sentence fragments. Purdue Online Writing Lab. https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/general_writing/mechanics/sentence_fragments.html