Grammar, Usage, and Style Guide: SparkNotes Ultimate Style: Fragments

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A sentence fragment is a phrase or clause that doesn’t have a subject and a verb that make a complete sentence.

Fragment: Although there is a chance of thunderstorms.

Fixing Fragments

Be particularly wary when beginning a sentence with words like between, before, although, and while. Sentences that begin with these words have a way of turning into fragments.

Fragment: Between the sheets, the crumbs that made sleeping uncomfortable.

• Between the sheets nestled the crumbs that made sleeping uncomfortable.

Fragments may sound correct to your ear. For one thing, they’re very common in advertising. Take the following ad:

JP Morgan investment expertise. Now within your reach. That may not strike you as grammatically objectionable, but it’s actually two fragments. Corrected, the ad might read JP Morgan investment expertise is now within your reach.

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