Humanities › English Practice in Correcting Needless Sentence Fragments An Editing Exercise Print Bambu Productions/Getty Images English English Grammar An Introduction to Punctuation Writing By Richard Nordquist Richard Nordquist English and Rhetoric Professor Ph.D., Rhetoric and English, University of Georgia M.A., Modern English and American Literature, University of Leicester B.A., English, State University of New York Dr. Richard Nordquist is professor emeritus of rhetoric and English at Georgia Southern University and the author of several university-level grammar and composition textbooks. Learn about our Editorial Process Updated on July 03, 2019 This exercise offers practice in identifying and correcting needless sentence fragments during the editing stage of the writing process. Instructions Read More Identifying and Correcting Sentence Fragments By Richard Nordquist The following descriptive paragraph contains three needless sentence fragments. First, identify the three fragments, and then correct each one--either by attaching it to an adjacent sentence or by turning the fragment itself into a complete sentence. When you're done, compare your corrected sentences with those in the edited version of the paragraph below Anthony (unedited draft) My five-year-old son Anthony is built like a little wind-up toy. His black curly hair, bushy eyebrows, a cute button nose, and chubby cheeks, which people can't resist pinching. These make him look like a life-size teddy bear. Anthony loves to wear his favorite black leather jacket with the image of Mumble the penguin on the back. And jeans with patches on the knees as a result of the holes he puts in them while crawling on the floor, pushing his toy cars around. Indeed, he is a very energetic little boy. In one afternoon, he will ride his bicycle, play video games, complete a 200-piece jigsaw puzzle, and, of course, play with his toy cars. In fact, his energy scares me sometimes. For example, that time on the roof. He shinnied up a tree and jumped onto the roof. However, he wasn't energetic (or bold) enough to climb back down, and so I had to rescue my wonderful little wind-up toy. Here is the edited version of "Anthony," the descriptive paragraph that served as the model for the sentence-fragment editing exercise. Keep in mind that there are multiple ways of correcting the three fragments in the exercise. Anthony (edited version) My five-year-old son Anthony is built like a little wind-up toy. He has black curly hair, bushy eyebrows, a cute button nose, and chubby cheeks, which people can't resist pinching. These make him look like a life-size teddy bear. Anthony loves to wear his favorite black leather jacket with the image of Mumble the penguin on the back and his favorite jeans, the ones with patches on the knees. The patches cover the holes that came about from crawling on the floor, pushing his toy cars around. Indeed, he is a very energetic little boy. In one afternoon, he will ride his bicycle, play video games, complete a 200-piece jigsaw puzzle, and, of course, play with his toy cars. In fact, his energy scares me sometimes. For example, I will never forget that time he shinnied up a tree and jumped onto the roof. However, he wasn't energetic (or bold) enough to climb back down, and so I had to rescue my wonderful little wind-up toy. Cite this Article Format mla apa chicago Your Citation Nordquist, Richard. "Practice in Correcting Needless Sentence Fragments." ThoughtCo, Feb. 16, 2021, thoughtco.com/practice-in-correcting-needless-sentence-fragments-1692396. Nordquist, Richard. (2021, February 16). Practice in Correcting Needless Sentence Fragments. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/practice-in-correcting-needless-sentence-fragments-1692396 Nordquist, Richard. "Practice in Correcting Needless Sentence Fragments." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/practice-in-correcting-needless-sentence-fragments-1692396 (accessed March 29, 2024). copy citation