THE ENGLISH SENTENCE

Fragmented Sentences Run-on Sentences What Words are Appropriate to start

Sentences?

A sentence fragment is an incomplete sentence because of the lack of either a subject or a verb, or both.

From experience, the source of problems

accounting for students’ use of fragmented sentence is located in the nature of dependent clauses.

This is because a dependent clause like an independent one has a subject and a verb but unlike independent clause, dependent clause does not express a complete thought and that is why they are called dependent clause because they cannot stand on their own.

Because her car was in the garage (what did she do?)

After the party ended (what then) When she finally submitted the assignment

(what will happen?) Since he came (Will he get what he wants?) If you want to succeed (what should you do?)

You can see in these examples that more information is required in order for a complete thought to be expressed.

The examples are incomplete because of the subordinators or subordinating conjunctions- because, after, when, since and if. A thorough understanding and knowledge of subordinators and the way they function in sentences will help eliminate the problems with fragmented sentences.

They join two sentences together They make one of the sentences depend on the other for complete thought and They indicate a logical relationship between the independent and the dependent clause.

The other way to solve the problem of fragmented sentences is to recognise the subordinators when you see them. The following is a list of subordinating conjunctions and the relationship they indicate in sentence construction:

Cause/effect: because, so, that Comparison/contrast: although, even though, though,

whereas, while Place and Manner: how, however, where, wherever Possibility/ Conditions: if, whether, unless Relation: that, which, who Time: after, as, before, since, when, whenever, while,

until

A third way to overcome the problem is to know that the subordinator and the whole dependent clause does not have to be at the beginning of the sentence as the dependent and independent clauses can swop or switch places, when you swop or switch them though, you have to make sure that the whole clause moves as one big chunk.

For example: Because her car was in the garage, Anita took

a train. Anita took a train because her car was in the

garage. A final thing to know in order to avoid

fragmented sentences is to be aware that every dependent clause has to be attached to an independent clause which can stand on its own.

These are otherwise known as fused sentences. This occurs when you put two complete sentences together in one sentence without separating them clearly.

For example: My Favourite Pizza is Tikka Chicken it is very spicy.

As you can see there are two separate sentences here and each of them conveys a complete thought and can stand on its own because each one is made up of an independent clause. However as it is expressed above, the sentence is incorrect because in the rush to express the thought conveyed there was no effort made to separate the two complete thoughts thus allowing them to run into each other.

Run-on sentences can be avoided by employing punctuation marks. For example a semi colon-; My favourite Pizza is Tikka Chicken; it is very spicy.

We could also use a comma and a coordinating conjunction such as (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so):

My favourite Pizza is Tikka Chicken, for it is very spicy or

My favourite Pizza is Tikka Chicken, and it is very spicy.

You could also employ a subordinating conjunction as in

My favourite Pizza is Tikka Chicken because it is very spicy or

Because it is very spicy, my favourite Pizza is Tikka Chicken.

You can also make it into two separate sentences with a period in between:

My favourite Pizza is Tikka Chicken. It is very spicy.

You could also use an em-dash (a long dash) for emphasis:

My favourite Pizza is Tikka Chicken--- It is very spicy.

What you should not do is add a comma between the two sentences otherwise you have what is called a “comma splice” as in:

My favourite Pizza is Tikka Chicken, it is very spicy- this is incorrect usage of comma.

Noguchi, in his book Grammar and the Teaching of Writing, suggests that you test your sentences with two methods:

Turn them into yes/no questions. Turn them into tag questions (sentences that end with a questioning phrase at the very end—look at our examples below).

My favourite Pizza is Tikka Chicken. If you turn it into a question that someone

could answer with a yes or no, it looks like this:

Is my favourite Pizza Tikka Chicken? If you turn it into a tag question, it looks like

this: My favourite Pizza is Tikka Chicken, isn’t it?

The first sentence is complete and not a run-on, because our test worked. Now, let us try the test on the original run-on sentence:

My Favourite Pizza is Tikka Chicken it is very spicy.

The yes/no question can only be made with each separate thought, not the sentence as a whole:

Is my favourite Pizza Tikka Chicken? Is it very spicy?

But not: Is my favourite Pizza Tikka Chicken is it very spicy?

But not: Is my favourite Pizza Tikka Chicken is it very spicy?

Both tests did not work with the original run on sentence because there is more than one complete concept expressed in the sentence. This explains why the whole sentence as it is cannot be turned into Yes/ No question or be turned into tag question.

Both tests did not work with the original run on sentence because there is more than one complete concept expressed in the sentence. This explains why the whole sentence as it is cannot be turned into Yes/ No question or be turned into tag question.

It is important not to confuse long sentences as run-ons just because of the length. The fact that a sentence is long does not necessarily mean that it is wrong. Consider the following sentences for example:

Anita waited

This sentence is simple. It has a subject and a verb, and a complete thought is expressed. The sentence is also realised by an independent clause. However, this simple sentence can be expanded to convey extra information as in:

Anita waited for the train all afternoon. Anita waited for the train all afternoon in the

snow last Monday. Wishing she had brought her winter jacket,

Anita waited for the train all afternoon in the snow last Monday.

Wishing she had brought her winter jacket and dreaming of her nice warm country, Anita waited for the train all afternoon in the snow last Monday because her car was in the garage.

Can a sentence start with And or Because or one of the other coordinating conjunctions?

Generally, coordinating conjunctions are used to join together parts of sentences not to begin them. In that sense, the answer is no.

For poetic effect however , and for creativity, sentences starting with coordinating conjunctions can be used to great effect as such sentences will stand out as unusual and to that effect, such sentences are often employed for emphasis what is known in linguistics as foregrounding or markedness.

Having said that, such sentences should not be used in everyday usage except for the purposes outlined above and even then it has to be used sparingly.

As to whether a sentence should start with because, there is nothing wrong with that. Starting a sentence with because may lead to fragmented sentence but once you know how to avoid that nothing stops you from using because at the beginning of a sentence to create variation in your writing.