1.1 Fragments: Subject + Verb = the Core of a Sentence

Read the following mentor sentence. What do you NOTICE about it?

Maria flinched.

from House of the Scorpion by Nancy Farmer

Take a look at this next example:

Tad watched.

from Cujo by Stephen King

Apply the sentence test to it. Is this group of words is a complete sentence OR is it a fragment? Ask yourself: Who or what did something? What did they do or what are they? If you can’t answer both of these questions, then it is not a complete sentence; it is a fragment.

Take a look at this next example:

The store.

Apply the sentence test to it. Is this group of words is a complete sentence OR is it a fragment? Ask yourself: Who or what did something? What did they do or what are they? If you can’t answer both of these questions, then it is not a complete sentence; it is a fragment.

Take a look at this next example:

Gerhard grins.

from The Boy Who Dared by Susan Bartoletti

Apply the sentence test to it. Is this group of words is a complete sentence OR is it a fragment? Ask yourself: Who or what did something? What did they do or what are they? If you can’t answer both of these questions, then it is not a complete sentence; it is a fragment.

Take a look at this next example:

The lights cluster brilliantly up the street at Claudia’s house.

from Loser by Jerry Spinelli

Apply the sentence test. Is the group of words a complete sentence? Ask yourself: Who or what did something? What did they do or what are they? If you can’t answer both of these questions, then it is not a complete sentence; it is a fragment.