Writer Tip - Fragmented

Fragmented sentences are tricky little guys. They'd like you to think they are acceptable because they express things the way we speak.

Well, okay. End of article.

No, it's not that simple.

They are okay in things like novels where the writing is polished, but not formal. The narration is done in the author's voice and expressed through a

character's point of view. So not only do you hear the way the author thinks, all of the words go through a second filter making sure they are true to the way the character thinks.

If the main character is male, there are going to be fragments. Just sayin'. And if the poor fella is from the south, have mercy on him! Jeff Foxworthy said that Texas was the only place he knew where "I tell you what" was it's own complete sentence. There's nothing else. That's it. Big fat period.

So there are places, like blogs ... ahem ... where fragments are completely acceptable. Even preferred. (For instance, if I said in the last sentence, "They're even preferred," you would not only lose my voice and the way I talk, but the sentence itself wouldn't latch onto the one before it quite as tightly.)

However, don't fill up a college essay, research paper, or thesis with a bunch of fragments. (Oh and don't use bunch either.) Your teacher/prof will surely count off, but that's not the worst part. When you show such obvious mistakes, your teacher will miss the point. How can you share how brilliant you are when you leave out necessary parts of speech? It's like forgetting to capitalize the first letter of a sentence.

Every sentence in formal writing needs a simple subject and a simple predicate (that's a noun and verb or as I taught my 4th graders, "Who did what?") In formal writing you will most likely not use the word you in your paper nor imply it, so every sentence should actually have it's own STAR. A person, place, thing, or idea that takes action or has being in your sentence. And that action or being is what the STAR does or is. (IE the verb.) Once you connect with those two parts you're on a down hill slide. Just make sure you don't leave your STAR hanging anywhere.  Jazy Josey ran to the window when she was supposed to be.

Um ... excuse me, but inquiring minds wanna know. What was Josey supposed to be doing? Yeah, don't do that. Make sure your sentence ties itself up in a little bow. Keeping it's arms and legs firmly within the sentence.

Are fragments a trouble spot for you? What is your grammar t-zone?

May your satisfaction overflow!

Writing Tip - It's Gotta End SOMETIME!

You would think, as a novelist, that I'm talking about a book ending. It's a logical assumption, and I hope to get to the end of the one I'm working on with due brevity. But such is not the topic for today.

See, I'm also a writing teacher, blessed with the challenge of learning enough to stay ahead of some of the sharpest young writers I've ever come across.

And yet, they suffer from a dire conspiracy that, I've noticed, even professionals experience from

time to time.

That of the run-on sentence.

It's not uncommon for writers to utilize fragments. They can introduce subjects, like mine just did (My "sentence" doesn't have a verb. Did you notice?) or define a situation with just a word or phrase. Sometimes, their choppiness can paint a mood across the writing.

Not so much with run-ons which tend to make the reader hold her breath until she reaches the end of the sentence it can really pinch a section as well the reader will have to go back and separate the sentences on her own since the author didn't bother to do it for her that halts the story line completely.

Sorry, I couldn't resist! :) Annoying wasn't it?

With the demands for juicy sentences and in depth explanations, along with parameters for paragraphs, I found my students stringing together up to three separate sentences. Sometimes they added commas to try to throw me off, or a series of semi-colons, looking like jewelry all through the essay. So I think I'm correct in my assessment that sometimes even the basest of grammar rules can need a little reminder.

A sentence is a complete thought that includes both a subject and a predicate. (Noun and verb) Basically, it tells who-did-what.

(Unless the sentence is the passive who-is-what, which doesn't actually make sense, because who, by it's very essence is who, and what is likewise what, so to say that who-is-what would be ... Would you repeat the question?)

(Yes, I know shades of "Who's on First." I think I'm in a loopier mood than normal.)

Feel free to skip the parentheticals. I think it's my drowsiness talking ... uh ... writing.

The problem comes when the sentence includes who-did-what, who-did-where, and who-else-was-there. I actually use "who-did-what" while I'm analyzing my students' papers.

A simple sentence is made up of the simple subject and the simple predicate. ~ When I looked across the road, I saw a funny looking man with a baseball bat.

Those parts are collectively called the simple sentence, made up of a simple subject and a simple predicate. (I was thinking of saying that they all lived together in a simple little house, but I think we've followed enough rabbit trails.) Very SIMPLY, if I find another simple sentence before the ending punctuation, "Off with his head!"

Oh, hold on. That was last week's post. This week it's just an evil laugh. *wrings hands* Bwhahahahahaha!

So here are some examples that I've actually seen before. See if you can separate the Run-ons from the complete sentences. For a double challenge, can you correct the mistakes or find the simple sentences in the correct ones?

1. In keeping with the mood of the music, the dancers work together with the choreographer their dance, composed as a team, offers the expertise of many instead of one.
2. Although the tiger cub could not survive in the cruel wilderness without the assistance of humans, he maintained his freedom, finding instead an accommodating cheetah.
3. Mercury, Chrysler, and Dodge vehicles are all very well-known, their family cars are among the best in America.
4. Whenever a nation learns of it's governments duplicity, it struggles to ascertain the importance of the deception was it slight or monumental.
5. While Captain America provided an excellent example of a hero, linking strength with courage and conviction and enduring personal sacrifice to promote the good of the country, Thor proved a more entertaining character because he began in a flawed state and progressed to the point of realizing his faults and seeking to rectify them.

For the next several Wednesdays, I'm going to talk about stopping sentences, or how to avoid energizer bunny writing. (Going on and on and on ...) There are a few tricks to it. For today, just be encouraged, as you revise or edit, to identify the main noun, the simple subject, along with the main verb, the simple predicate, in each sentence and make doubly sure you didn't do any doubling on them!

What's the hardest grammar rule you've ever encountered. For me, it was semi-colons. (I had to get tutoring to figure out how to put the dot on top of the comma!)

Fragmented

It has come to my attention, that fragments, such as they are, can be perfectly acceptable. In professional writing. I've seen many examples of it. One word sentences. Other short expressions that, while they don't have clear subjects or predicates, stand alone as a complete thought.

How many fragments could you count in the first paragraph? I'm no expert, but