We call them fragments because they're incomplete on their own, like jelly or gravy or Taylor Swift. Or like Renee Zellweger in the opening credits of Bridget Jones' Diary. Lacking a subject or a predicate, a fragment can be made complete when attached to a sentence. Unless you do it for stylistic reasons, don't leave a fragment hanging.
Alas, too often fragments are made to stand on their own. Here's an example I came across today:
"This is one of my favorite books [That was an independent clause.]. Written by the author of The Time Traveler's Wife [Arghhh! That's not a sentence!]."Lonely fragments: just another everyday tragedy.
No comments:
Post a Comment