A fragment? Look out!

Incomplete sentences are confusing. Make us wonder...

Last night, we heard a loud noise outside. We ran into the back yard. Saw that a tree had fallen.

All looks good. But, wait. Watch the last sentence. Is there something wrong?

The sentence lacks a subject, which makes it an incomplete sentence or a fragment. Fragments confuse readers because of the lack of a subject, verb, or both. They make the meaning of the sentence incomplete and unclear.

More examples of fragments:

Mike doesn’t like fish; likes chicken.

(‘likes chicken’ has no subject )

In our school, during the last academic year and just before the Christmas vacation ( no subject and no verb , so it leaves us wondering, what happened in the school during the last academic year, and just before the Christmas vacation)

Sentence fragments have to be avoided in formal writing. The fragments above can be fixed in the following ways:

Last night, we heard a loud noise outside. We ran into the back yard and saw that a tree had fallen. (add a suitable conjunction)

Mike doesn’t like fish, but likes chicken. (add a suitable conjunction)

In our school, during the last academic year and just before the Christmas vacation, a new cafeteria was opened. (write what happened in school)