To prevent sentence fragments
Catch misunderstandings early

Sentence fragments are every English teacher's nightmare. Not only are such incomplete sentences seemingly impervious to teaching, but they are so obvious that Dr. Beaker of the state university science faculty and Mr. Hogg, manager of the local Piggly Wiggly, can spot them.

The real problem is not fragments per se. It's unintentional incomplete sentences.

Possible causes of sentence fragments

Why do Joshua and Caitlin write fragments in their first year college classes despite years of Miss Inky Finger's scrawling "frag" in the margins of their papers?

Some possible reasons are

• They deliberately ignore anything Miss Inky Fingers says.

• They do not know the meaning of sentence fragment.

• They know the definition of sentence fragment but don't understand what it means.

We're pretty safe ruling out the first two. Students don't deliberately buck a teacher on something as impersonal as a grammar rule, especially if their rebellion affect their grades. If their grade takes a hit because of fragments, students are likely to try to correct the problem, at least the first couple times it happens.

It's also fairly unlikely that students don't know the meaning of sentence fragment. Schools hammer away at the definition of a sentence year after year.

In my experience, students who have serious problems with fragments know the textbook definition, but they have no clue what it means.

Check for misunderstanding

Often students are genuinely bewildered by being reprimanded for errors that appear to them to result from correct application of a grammar rule.

Few students deliberately make errors unless they think what they are doing is correct.

When you see a student whose work is riddled with incomplete sentences, you need to take that student aside and find out what the student believes the applicable rules are.

Use informal assessment in grammar

Better yet, don't wait until a student shows up with a serious problem.

Use informal writing to find out what students thought you meant when you explained sentence fragments. Then you'll know right away whether you got through to students or whether they totally misinterpreted what you said.

A true story

Some years ago, my college department chairperson sent a student to me for extra help. From her writing, you would have through the woman was mentally defective.

She turned out to be bright and articulate.

I had her read me an essay her instructor had covered in red ink. From her expression, I could see some of the "sentences" didn't sound right to her.

I asked her what her definition of a sentence was. She told me it was a word group that had a subject and verb and expressed a complete thought.

Then I asked her for a definition of subject. Again she rattled off a textbook-correct definition.

Then I asked what a verb is. She said it was "a word that showed action or state of being." That's standard textbook language.

I pointed to one of the sentences that had made her frown — it was "Joe the plumber." — and asked her to show me the subject and verb.

She said, "Joe is the subject. He's what the sentence is about. Plumber is the verb. Plumber is what Joe is. Plumber shows Joe's state of being."

That is the funniest story of grammar misinformation that I've run across, but it is fairly typical of students with persistent, serious grammar problems such as sentence fragments.

Let me repeat for emphasis.........

Few students deliberately make errors unless they think what they are doing is correct.

Avoid such problems by getting regular feedback about what students thought you meant by what you said, particularly when the subject is grammar. Informal writing is ideal for this sort of formative assessment.

There is no excuse for a student in the sophomore year of college making mistakes because of a misunderstanding in third grade.