Fragments and

Jumbled Sentences
 Fragments and
Jumbled Sentences
Lesson & Exercises

Every sentence must contain two elements: a subject (noun, pronoun, or gerund) and a main verb that corresponds
to it (predicate). A clause that lacks these elements cannot be a sentence. Instead, it is a fragment.

Particularly when statements are long and contain multiple clauses, errors can be challenging to identify. The
following pages cover some common types of fragments as well as how to fix them.

1) Gerunds replace verbs

2) Conjunctions

3) Relative and non-essential clauses

Gerunds Replace Verbs

Gerunds are formed by adding –ing to verbs, e.g., to have → having; to do → doing; to think → thinking.

Gerunds look like verbs but act like nouns. As a result, a clause that contains only a gerund cannot be a sentence.
Instead, it is a fragment.

Note that to be, the most common verb in the English language, is irregular: its conjugated forms are different from
the infinitive.

Present Past
Singular is was

Plural are were

To turn a fragment containing a gerund into a sentence, replace the gerund with a conjugated verb.

Fragment: Heralds being the predecessors of modern diplomats: they traveled under the orders
of kings or noblemen in order to convey messages or proclamations.

Sentence: Heralds were the predecessors of modern diplomats: they traveled under the orders
of kings or noblemen in order to convey messages or proclamations.

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 Conjunctions
There are two main types of conjunctions: coordinating and subordinating.

Coordinating, or FANBOYS (For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, So), conjunctions join two independent clauses
(compound sentence).

Subordinating conjunctions join an independent clause and a dependent clause (complex sentence).

After Before Though Whenever

Although Despite Unless Whereas
As If Until Whether
Because Since When While

A clause that begins with a conjunction must also contain a verb. An -ing word cannot be used instead.

Fragment: John Breckinridge came close to winning the 1860 United States presidential election,
although holding strong personal convictions that made it difficult for him to
navigate a moderate course.

Sentence: John Breckinridge came close to winning the 1860 United States presidential election,
although he held strong personal convictions that made it difficult for him to navigate
a moderate course.

In addition, a clause that begins with a conjunction cannot generally act as a standalone sentence. It must be
combined with a second, independent clause to form a sentence.

Fragment: Lions and great white sharks may boast the most famous jaws in the animal kingdom.
But other creatures have jaws that are much faster.

Sentence: Lions and great white sharks may boast the most famous jaws in the animal kingdom,
but other creatures have jaws that are much faster.

Note that in informal writing, it is considered acceptable to occasionally begin a sentence with a FANBOYS
conjunction for stylistic effect. In more formal situations, however, this construction should generally be avoided.

There is less flexibility surrounding subordinating conjunctions. For all intents and purposes, a single-clause
sentence should never begin with this type of transition.

Fragment: Although it is estimated that around 10 meteorites come crashing to Earth from outer
space every day. Researchers discover only a few meteorites each year.

Sentence: Although it is estimated that around 10 meteorites come crashing to Earth from outer
space every day, researchers discover only a few meteorites each year.

Unlike coordinating and subordinating conjunctions, conjunctive adverbs can be used to begin complete sentences.
Common examples include however, therefore, moreover, nevertheless, and meanwhile.

Sentence: It is estimated that around 10 meteorites come crashing to Earth from outer
space every day. However, researchers discover only a few of these rocks each year.

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In addition, it is redundant and grammatically unacceptable to place conjunctions at the beginnings of two
consecutive clauses. If one clause begins with a subordinating conjunction, the following clause should not begin
with a coordinating conjunction. Either one or the other should be used.

Incorrect: Although Santiago had trained hard for the marathon, but he was unable to finish the
entire course.

Correct: Although Santiago had trained hard for the marathon, he was unable to finish the
entire course.

Correct: Santiago had trained hard for the marathon, but he was unable to finish the entire
course.

Relative and Non-Essential Clauses

Relative pronouns are used to join clauses. They include:

• Which
• Who
• Whose
• That
• When
• Where

A statement (not a question) that begins with a relative pronoun cannot normally stand alone as a complete
sentence. Instead, it must be joined to an independent clause.

Fragment: Deborah Willis is a renowned photographer. Who uses her work to convey stories
about family life.

Sentence: Deborah Willis is a renowned photographer who uses her work to convey stories
about family life.

Fragment: The microscopic residents of Monterey Canyon make food from rocks and harvest
energy from methane. That seeps out from the ocean floor.

Sentence: The microscopic residents of Monterey Canyon make food from rocks and harvest
energy from methane that seeps out from the ocean floor.

A relative pronoun can also be used to begin a non-essential clause (which, who, set off by commas) or an essential
clause (that, not set off by commas) embedded in the middle of a sentence.

Such clauses must always contain a main verb that corresponds to the subject of the sentence.

For example, consider the following.

Fragment: George C. Williams, who was one of the most important thinkers in the field of
evolutionary biology.

The problem here is that the verb was “belongs” to the relative pronoun who, the subject of the new clause. It does
not correspond to the subject of the main clause, George C. Williams.

In addition, the construction comma + who suggests that a non-essential clause is beginning, but there is never a
second comma to end the clause – the sentence ends without a resolution.

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The fastest and easiest way to turn this fragment into a sentence is to remove comma + who, eliminating the relative
clause and making the entire sentence into a single main clause.

Sentence: George C. Williams was one of the most important thinkers in the field of
evolutionary biology.

Now the verb was clearly belongs to the correct subject.

When sentences are short, this type of error is relatively easy to catch. When they are longer, however, it is very
easy to get “lost” in them and to lose track of what verb belongs to what subject. The result often a jumbled
sentence. This is a particular danger when you are writing quickly, or at the last minute (or both).

Fragment: George C. Williams, who was one of the most important thinkers in evolutionary
biology, and who made a number of lasting contributions to his field.

In the above sentence, we can identify what appears to be a non-essential clause (who was…biology) because it
begins with who and is surrounded by commas. If we cross it out, however, we are left with:

Fragment: George C. Williams…and who made a number of lasting contributions to his field.

Clearly this is not a sentence. Making it into a sentence, however, is relatively simple: since the first word after the
end of a non-essential clause is typically a verb, we can cross out all the excess words before the verb.

Sentence: George C. Williams…and who made a number of lasting contributions to his field.

With the elimination of those two words, the fragment suddenly becomes a sentence. And when we plug the non-
essential clause back in, we get something much clearer:

Sentence: George C. Williams, who was one of the most important thinkers in evolutionary
biology, made a number of lasting contributions to his field.

Another possible solution is to remove the non-essential clause entirely.

Sentence: George C. Williams was one of the most important thinkers in the field of
evolutionary biology and made a number of lasting contributions to his field.

An additional, less common problem occurs when a writer loses track of a sentence and creates the end of a non-
essential clause when there is no beginning.

Fragment: George C. Williams was one of the most important thinkers in the field of
evolutionary biology, made a number of lasting contributions to his field.

Sentences like these can be tricky because the beginning looks fine; it’s the end that appears to need fixing. In cases
such as these, however, the second comma followed by a verb is your clue that a non-essential clause needs to be
created in order to correct the sentence.

Sentence: George C. Williams, who was one of the most important thinkers in the field of
evolutionary biology, made a number of lasting contributions to his field.

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In addition to relative clauses, two other common types of phrases can be used non-essentially.

Appositives begin with nouns.

Correct: Mobile robot technology, a technology historically used by both the military and the
police, is now becoming widespread at businesses and hotels.

Participial phrases begin with participles, either present (–ing) or past (–ed).

Correct: Mobile robot technology, having become popular with both the military and the
police, is now become widespread at businesses and hotels.

Correct: Mobile robot technology, used by both the military and the police, is now becoming
widespread at businesses and hotels.

Like relative clauses, these phrases cannot stand on their own as sentences.

Fragment: A technology historically used by both the military and the police.

Fragment: Having become popular with both the military and the police.

Correct: Used by both the military and the police.

When these phrase types are used non-essentially, you can treat them exactly like relative clauses.

Fragment: Mobile robot technology, a technology historically used by both the military and the
police, and it is now becoming widespread at businesses and hotels.

Reduce: Mobile robot technology, a technology historically used by both the military and the
police, and it is now becoming widespread at businesses and hotels.

Cross out: Mobile robot technology…and it is now becoming widespread at businesses and
hotels.

Sentence: Mobile robot technology, a technology historically used by both the military and the
police, is now becoming widespread at businesses and hotels.

Clauses beginning with that can have similar problems. Although these clauses are essential to the meaning of a
sentence, they can be removed to reveal problems with grammatical construction.

Fragment: The mobile robot technology that has historically been used by both the military
and the police and that is now becoming widespread at businesses and hotels.

When the essential clause is crossed out, the statement that remains is clearly ungrammatical.

Cross out: The mobile robot technology that has historically been used by both the military and
the police and that is now becoming widespread at businesses and hotels.

In the above version, the verb is belongs to that – the subject of the essential clause. To correct the sentence, we must
restore the verb is to the main subject, The mobile robot technology.

Crossed out: The mobile robot technology that has historically been used by both the military and
the police and that is now becoming widespread at businesses and hotels.

Sentence: The mobile robot technology that has historically been used by both the military and
the police is now becoming widespread at businesses and hotels.

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Exercise: Fragments and Jumbled Sentences
For the following exercises, turn any fragment into a sentence by adding/removing the fewest possible words
and adjusting the punctuation as necessary. Some of the sentences may not contain an error.

1. Shirley Jackson, best known for her shocking short story “The Lottery,” and who was born in San Francisco in
1916.

2. George Washington and General Lafayette were great friends but coming from widely disparate backgrounds
and had little in common.

3. Between 1903 and 1913, the British suffragettes, a group devoted to helping women win the right to vote,
resorted to increasingly extreme measures to make their voices heard.

4. Many scientists are baffled by the appearance of Yersinia pestis. A fungus that has been destroying bat
populations throughout the United States in recent years.

5. The plan to overhaul the country’s higher education system being a model for moving other desperately
needed projects forward.

6. Patients who receive anesthesia during surgery are put into a semi-comatose state, not, as many people
assume, a deep state of sleep.

7. Recent findings from research on moose, which have suggested that arthritis in human beings may be linked
in part to nutritional deficits.

8. A new study has reported that the physical differences among dog breeds are determined by variations
occurring only about seven genetic regions.

9. George Barr McCutcheon, a popular novelist and playwright, is best known for a series of novels. That are set
in the fictional Eastern European country of Graustark.

10. Because small companies generally lack the financial resources to upgrade their software and set up protective
barriers, so their security systems can be hacked more easily than those of large ones.

11. Human computers, who once performed basic numerical analysis for laboratories, and they were behind the
calculations for everything from the first accurate prediction of the return of Halley’s Comet to the success of
the Manhattan Project.

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12. Nicollet Island, an island in the Mississippi River just north of Minneapolis, and which was named after
cartographer Joseph Nicollet.

13. Lan Samantha Chang is a critically acclaimed novelist. Who counts among her influences authors as varied as
Charlotte Brontë and Edgar Allan Poe.

14. The Rochester International Jazz Festival takes place in June of each year and typically attracting more than
100,000 fans from towns across upstate New York.

15. Brick nog, a commonly used construction technique in which one width of bricks is used to fill the vacancies
in a wooden frame.

16. Telling the story of Odette, a princess turned into a swan by an evil sorcerer’s curse, Swan Lake, one of the
most popular ballets, was fashioned from Russian folk tales.

17. Simone Fortini is a choreographer who was born in Italy but moved to the United States at a young age.
Becoming known for a style of dancing based on improvisation and everyday movements.

18. Although eighteenth-century European sailors were convinced that citrus fruits could cure scurvy, a disease
caused by a severe deficiency of vitamin C, but classically trained physicians dismissed that theory because it
did not conform to prevailing beliefs about disease.

19. Batsford Arboretum, a 55-acre garden that contains Great Britain’s largest collection of Japanese cherry trees
and it is open daily to the public for most of the year.

20. Rodin purposely omitted crucial elements such as arms from his sculptures, although his consistent use of the
human figure attesting to his respect for artistic tradition.

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Answers: Fragments and Jumbled Sentences

1. Shirley Jackson, best known for her shocking short story “The Lottery,” was born in San Francisco in 1916.

2. George Washington and General Lafayette were great friends but came from widely disparate backgrounds
and had little in common.

3. Correct

4. Many scientists are baffled by the appearance of Yersinia pestis, a fungus that has been destroying bat
populations throughout the United States in recent years.

5. The plan to overhaul the country’s higher education system is a model for moving other desperately needed
projects forward.

6. Correct

7. Recent findings from research on moose have suggested that arthritis in human beings may be linked in part
to nutritional deficits.

8. Correct

9. George Barr McCutcheon, a popular novelist and playwright, is best known for a series of novels that are set
in the fictional Eastern European country of Graustark.

10. Because small companies generally lack the financial resources to upgrade their software and set up
protective barriers, so their security systems can be hacked more easily than those of large ones.

OR:

Because small companies generally lack the financial resources to upgrade their software and set up
protective barriers, so their security systems can be hacked more easily than those of large ones.

11. Human computers, who once performed basic numerical analysis for laboratories, were behind the
calculations for everything from the first accurate prediction of the return of Halley’s Comet to the success of
the Manhattan Project.

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8 © 2018 The Critical Reader, www.thecriticalreader.com
12. Nicollet Island, an island in the Mississippi River just north of Minneapolis, was named after cartographer
Joseph Nicollet.

13. Lan Samantha Chang is a critically acclaimed novelist, who counts among her influences authors as varied as
Charlotte Brontë and Edgar Allan Poe.

14. The Rochester International Jazz Festival takes place in June of each year and typically attracts more than
100,000 fans from towns across upstate New York.

15. Brick nog is a commonly used construction technique in which one width of bricks is used to fill the vacancies
in a wooden frame.

16. Correct

17. Simone Fortini is a choreographer who was born in Italy but moved to the United States at a young age,
becoming known for a style of dancing based on improvisation and everyday movements.

18. Although eighteenth-century European sailors were convinced that citrus fruits could cure scurvy, a disease
caused by a severe deficiency of vitamin C, but classically trained physicians dismissed that theory because it
did not conform to prevailing beliefs about disease.

OR:

Although Eighteenth-century European sailors were convinced that citrus fruits could cure scurvy, a disease
caused by a severe deficiency of vitamin C, but classically trained physicians dismissed that theory because it
did not conform to prevailing beliefs about disease.

19. Batsford Arboretum, a 55-acre garden that contains Great Britain’s largest collection of Japanese cherry trees,
is open daily to the public for most of the year.

20. Rodin purposely omitted crucial elements such as arms from his sculptures, although his consistent use of the
human figure attested to his respect for artistic tradition.

____________________________________________
9 © 2018 The Critical Reader, www.thecriticalreader.com