Slides on Fragments, parallelism, and fragments

1. Handling Fragments, Run-
ons and Parallelism.

2. BASIC MAKE UP OF A
SENTENCE
 A COMPLETE SENTENCE MUST HAVE:
 1. SUBJECT
 2. VERB
 3. A COMPLETE IDEA

3. Fragment?
Means incomplete sentence!
Why?
The sentence DID NOT fulfill the 3
REQUIRED criteria of a sentence!

4.  1. MISSING SUBJECT.
 Ex: Just can’t wait to be married!
 WHO is that desperate person? Identity must be
revealed!
 If concealed, it is a FRAGMENT!
 MUST ADD SUBJECT.
 2. MISSING VERB be or have
 Ex: She angered by those thoughtless
remarks!
 This sentence lacks a be VERB

5.  3. INCOMPLETE IDEA
 BEWARE of DEPENDENT CLAUSES that begin
with SUBORDINATOR or CONJUNCTIONS,
such as :after, although, as, because, before, even
though, if, since, that, so that, when, while, who…
 Ex: Because he loves giving her beautiful flowers,
especially tulips, roses, and lilies.
 The listener will be right there waiting for the
continuation of the story! INCOMPLETE!!!

6.  4. Be careful with added-detail fragments.
 Added detail fragments lack a subject and a verb. They
begin with these words:
 Also, especially, except, for example, like, such as,
including.
 Before a competition, I have to eat starchy food. Such
as bread and spaghetti. I get instant energy from such
food.
 ‘Such as bread and spaghetti’ is NOT a complete
sentence. EVERY sentence must have subject, verb
and complete idea.
 How to correct? ADD it to the preceding or the next
sentence, whichever makes sense.

7.  5. –ing and To fragments.
 It is a problem when gerunds or to-infinitive starts a
sentence.
 She is a very responsible daughter. Trying hard to make
ends meet. She takes up two part time work after class.
 Trying to make ends meet is NOT complete.
 How to change?
 Attach the fragment to the preceding sentence or the
next sentence, whichever makes sense.
 Or add a subject and change the –ing verb to the
correct form of verb. Ex: She tries hard to make ends
meet.

8. RUN-ONS
 Happens when there are MORE than ONE
independent clauses in a sentence.
 2 types of RUN-ONS:
 1. FUSED- 2 or more independent clauses
combined without proper punctuation marks
between them.
 Ex: Mummy is upset we must be careful .
 2 independent clauses are combined without any
punctuation marks.

9. Run-ons
 2. Comma splice.
 Happens when the punctuation mark used, the
COMMA, is inadequate to combine 2
independent clauses.
 Ex: Mummy is upset, we must be careful.

10. RUN-ONS
 3 main ways to handle RUN-ONS
 1. use a stronger comma: the semi-colon
 Ex: Mummy is upset; we must be careful.
 2. maintain the comma but insert coordinating
conjunction : The FANBOYS
 Ex: Mummy is upset, so we must be careful.
 3. Insert a full stop with or without a transitional
word or phrase (ex: likewise, thus, therefore, etc)
 Ex: Mummy is upset. (Hence), we must be
careful.

11. Parallelism?
 It means to put all items in a series in the same
grammatical form: Singular with singulars,
Plurals with plurals, nouns with nouns, active
with actives and passives with passives and etc.

12. 1. In sentences with several items in the passive
voice, the auxiliary may be repeated each time or
used before the first item only.
Ex: The prisoner was arrested, was tried and was
found guilty.
The prisoner was arrested, tried, and found guilty.
2. The same principle applies to the use of articles,
preposition or even the to-infinitive in a series.
The key is to be consistent.
Ex: James keeps his money everywhere, in the
drawers, in the bottles, and in the shoes!

13. 3.Mixing gerunds and infinitives in the same
series is a common parallelism error.
 For example: My summer hobbies are hiking,
boating and to go mountain climbing.
 It should be: My summer hobbies are hiking,
boating and mountain climbing.

14.  Descriptive words must be balanced.
 For example: The students are required to
complete their assignment within a short period
of time, and that restricts their ability to express
their ideas imaginatively, creatively, and
innovatively

15.  Correlative conjunctions like neither…nor,
either…or, not only…but also… must also pair
parallel ideas.
 For example: She should either send her children
to that tuition centre or teach them herself.

16.  The items in a list must be kept in the same
form.
 For example: A student ought to be punctual,
obedient, and respect their elders.
 It should be respectful because the previous
words are adjectives.

17. Thank you for listening
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