Fragments and Dependent Clauses

Fragments

Fragments are sentences that are not complete or cannot stand alone. They can occur when the subject or the main verb in a sentence is missing OR when the sentence begins with a word that forces it to be dependent on another sentence to complete its meaning (dependent clause).

Complete sentence/independent clause = SUBJECT + VERB.

Missing Subject

When a sentence is missing a subject (the WHO or WHAT), it is considered a fragment and cannot stand alone.
Example:

Wrong: Worked far into the night in an effort to salvage her little boat. -> In this example, we are missing the subject (Who or what is working into the night).

The female sailor worked far into the night in an effort to salvage her little boat.
She worked far into the night in an effort to salvage her little boat.

Missing Verb

When a sentence is missing a verb (the ACTION or WHAT HAPPENED), it is considered a fragment and cannot stand alone.

Example:

Wrong: Some of the students working in Professor Espinoza's lab last semester. -> In this example, we don’t know what happened in Professor E’s lab, so we are missing the Verb.

Some of the students working in Professor Espinoza’s lab last semester broke some very expensive materials.
Some of the students working in Professor Espinoza’s lab last semester went to medical school

Dependent clause

A dependent clause is a clause (or part of a sentence) that adds additional information to a sentence but cannot stand alone as its own sentence.

Complete sentence = Dependent clause, independent clause.
OR
Complete sentence = Independent clause, dependent clause.

Example 1:

Wrong: While I was asleep.
Wrong: While I was asleep the cat knocked over the plant.

-> In both of these examples, the dependent clause is “while I was asleep.” It adds information to sentence, but it cannot stand alone because there is no subject (the cat) or a verb (knocked). In the first example, we need to add the subject and the verb (the WHO and the WHAT), and in the second example, we need a comma to separate the dependent clause from the independent clause.

While I was asleep, the cat knocked over the plant.

Example 2:

Wrong: A helium nucleus has two protons whereas hydrogen has only one.

-> In this example, the independent clause comes at the beginning of the sentence, and the added information/dependent clause comes towards the end. We still need a comma to separate the dependent clause from the independent clause.

A helium nucleus has two protons, whereas hydrogen has only one.

Transition words and Phrases

HINT: Here are some examples of words that are commonly found in dependent clauses and introductory phrases (see example 1) OR used on their own as an introductory word, also known as transition words.

Agreement/Addition/Similarity

in the first place	again	moreover
not only ...but also	to	as well as
as a matter of fact	and	together with
in like manner	also	of course
in addition	then	likewise
coupled with	equally	comparatively
in the same fashion/way	identically	correspondingly
first, second, third	uniquely	similarly
in the light of	like	furthermore
not to mention	as	additionally
to say nothing of	too
equally important
by the same token

Conclusion/Summary/Restatement

as can be seen	after all	overall
generally speaking	in fact	ordinarily
in the final analysis	in summary	usually
all things considered	in conclusion	by and large
as shown above	in short	to sum up
in the long run	in brief	on the whole
given these points	in essence	in any event
as has been noted	to summarize	in either case
in a word	on balance	all in all
for the most part	altogether

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