CHAPTER 1 Elements of the English Sentence^5
all incomplete thoughts missing essential elements: subject (i.e., person, place, or
thing) or a verb (i.e., the action). Because of the missing pieces, this kind of incom-
plete sentence is called a fragment—a piece of a thought.
The following examples include possible completions for the previous fragments.
Notice that either a subject or verb was added to each one:
- A wandering child ran into the street. (The verb ran answers the question,
“What did the child do?”) - The new driver was driving too slowly and stopping too frequently. (The
subject,driver, answers the question, “Who was driving?”) - The skies changed from stormy to clear. (The subject, skies, answers the
question, “What changed from stormy to clear?)
Sentence Fragments and Run-Ons
You just read examples of incomplete sentences (e.g., A wandering child). Because
the examples represent only parts of complete thoughts, they’re called fragments. If,
on the other hand, you were to string together sentence after sentence—with no
periods or semicolons in sight—you would be committing another type of error
called a run-on sentence. You’ll learn about both fragments and run-on sentences in
the following sections.
SENTENCE FRAGMENTS
Fragments sometimes result when writers start sentences with words such as when,
after,because,since,before, and as soon as. For example, does the following group
of words have a subject and a verb? Is it a complete sentence?
When the new product arrives.The example has a subjectlike word, product, and a verblike word, arrives, and it is
still not a complete sentence. If you say it out loud, you will hear that it is
unfi nished:
When the new product arrives...