SAT Writing: Fragments

A sentence fragment is a piece or part of a sentence. It's an incomplete sentence, one that's missing a subject or a verb. For example:

Floating on the river.

Of course, that one's easy to spot. The SAT will give you sentence fragments so long that by the time you've read to the end of them, you'll have forgotten where you started. You'll commonly see fragments in which the entire sentence is a relative clause (e.g. who, which, that, where), a dependent clause (e.g. although, while, when), or a gerund phrase (e.g. being, walking, singing). If you read a sentence out loud and it lacks a sense of completion or the whole thing just sounds weird by the end, chances are it's a sentence fragment.

Example 1
Wrong:	People who have a sense of entitlement and feel absolutely no sympathy for those less fortunate even when they take advantage of their services.
Correct:	People who have a sense of entitlement and feel absolutely no sympathy for those less fortunate even when they take advantage of their services make me sick.

Example 1 is a relative clause sentence fragment.

Example 2
Wrong:	Because my broken heart, which you have left hardly beating in my chest, is the reason for my endless suffering.
Correct:	My broken heart, which you have left hardly beating in my chest, is the reason for my endless suffering.

Example 2 is a dependent clause sentence fragment.

Example 3
Wrong:	Russell Brand, the English comedian, being one of the funniest celebrities alive.
Correct:	Russell Brand, the English comedian, is one of the funniest celebrities alive.

Example 3 is a gerund phrase sentence fragment.

There is no one absolute way to fix a sentence fragment. On the SAT, the simpler ones are easy to spot and fix. Often times, the trickier ones will involve removing words like who, which, although, because, since, and despite as in Example 2.