Sentence Fragments
Sentence fragments are incomplete thoughts presented as dependent clauses or phrases.
A dependent clause or a phrase is never a complete sentence.
Types of dependent clauses:
Whenever I drive up windy mountains,
Because I have craved pizza for 14 months,
Unless you add coffee to your chocolate cake recipe,
,which is currently enjoying a resurgence.
Phrases
Enamored by the music of Tupac Shakur,
Craving pesto linguine with olive-oil based clam sauce,
Flexing his muscles with a braggadocio never seen in modern times,
Lying under the bridge and eating garlic pepper pretzels with a dollop of cream cheese and a jug of chilled apple cider,
To understand the notion of Universal Basic Income and all of its related factors for social change in this disruptive age,
Running into crowded restaurants with garlic and whiskey fuming out of his sweaty pores while brandishing a golden scepter,
Examples
I won't entertain your requests for more money and gifts. Until you show at least a modicum of responsibility at school and with your friends.
I won't consider buying the new BMW sports coupe. Unless of course my uncle gives me that inheritance he keeps talking about whenever he gets a bit tipsy.
I can't imagine ever going to Chuck E. Cheese. Which makes me feel like I'm emotionally arrested.
I am considering the purchase of a new wardrobe. That is, if I'm picked for that job interview at Nordstrom.
Human morals have vanished. To the point at which it was decided that market values would triumph.
No subject
Marie Antoinette spent huge sums of money on herself and her favorites. And helped to bring on the French Revolution.
No complete verb
The aluminum boat sitting on its trailer.
Beginning with a subordinating word
We returned to the drugstore. Where we waited for our buddies.
A sentence fragment is part of a sentence that is written as if it were a complete sentence. Reading your draft out loud, backwards, sentence by sentence, will help you spot sentence fragments.
Sentence Fragment Exercises
After each sentence, write C for complete or F for fragment sentence. If the sentence is a fragment, correct it so that it is a complete sentence.
One. While hovering over the complexity of a formidable math problem and wondering if he had time to solve the problem before his girlfriend called him to complain about the horrible birthday present he bought her.
Two. In spite of the boyfriend’s growing discontent for his girlfriend, a churlish woman prone to tantrums and grand bouts of petulance.
Three. My BMW 5 series, a serious entry into the luxury car market.
Four. Overcome with nausea from eating ten bowls of angel hair pasta slathered in pine nut garlic pesto.
Five. Winding quickly but safely up the treacherous Palos Verdes hills in the shrouded mist of a lazy June morning, I realized that my BMW gave me feelings of completeness and fulfillment.
Six. To attempt to grasp the profound ignorance of those who deny the compelling truths of science in favor of their pseudo-intellectual ideas about “dangerous” vaccines and the “myths” of global warming.
Seven. The girlfriend whom I lavished with exotic gifts from afar.
Eight. When my cravings for pesto pizza, babaganoush, and triple chocolate cake overcome me during my bouts of acute anxiety.
Nine. Inclined to stop watching sports in the face of my girlfriend’s insistence that I pay more attention to her, I am throwing away my TV.
Ten. At the dance club where I espy my girlfriend flirting with a stranger by the soda machine festooned with party balloons and tinsel.
Eleven. The BMW speeding ahead of me and winding into the misty hills.
Twelve. Before you convert to the religion of veganism in order to impress your vegan girlfriend.
Thirteen. Summoning all my strength to resist the giant chocolate fudge cake sweating on the plate before me.
Identify the Fragments Below
Identify the Fragments Below
I drank the chalky Soylent meal-replacement drink. Expecting to feel full and satisfied. Only to find that I was still ravenously hungry afterward. Trying to sate my hunger pangs. I went to HomeTown Buffet. Where I ate several platters of braised oxtail and barbecued short ribs smothered in a honey vinegar sauce. Which reminded me of a sauce where I used to buy groceries from. When I was a kid.
Feeling bloated after my HomeTown Buffet indulgence. I exited the restaurant. After which I hailed an Uber and asked the driver for a night club recommendation. So I could dance off all my calories. The driver recommended a place, Anxiety Wires. I had never heard of it. Though, it was crowded inside. I felt eager to dance and confident about “my swag.” Although, I was still feeling bloated. Wondering if my intestines were on the verge of exploding.
Sweating under the nightclub’s outdoor canopy. I smelled the cloying gasses of a nearby vape. A serpentine woman was holding the vape. A gold contraption emitting rose-water vapors into my direction. Contemplating my gluttony. I was suddenly feeling low confidence. Though I pushed myself to introduce myself to the vape-smoking stranger with the serpentine features. Her eyes locked on mine.
I decided to play it cool. Instead of overwhelming her with a loud, brash manner. Which she might interpret as neediness on my part.
Keeping a portable fan in my cargo pocket for emergencies. When I feel like I’m overheating. I took the fan out of my pocket, turned it on, and directed it toward the serpentine stranger. Making it so the vapors were blowing back in her face.
“Doesn’t smell so good, does it?” I said. With a sarcastic grin.
She cackled, then said, “Thank you for blowing the vapors in my face. Now I can both enjoy inhaling them and breathing them in. For double the pleasure. You are quite a find. Come home with me and I’ll introduce you to my mother Gertrude and her pitbull Jackson. I’m sure they’ll welcome you into our home. Considering what a well-fed handsome man you are.”
“Thank you for the compliment,” I said. “I would love to meet your mother Gertrude and your mother’s pitbull Jackson. Only one problem. My breath smells like a rotting dead dragon. Right after eating spicy ribs. Which reminds me? Do you have any breath mints?”
“I don’t believe in carrying breath mints. On account of the rose-water vape. That cleanses my palate. Making my breath rosy fresh.”
“Wow. Your constant good breath counteracts my intractable bad breath. Making us a match in heaven.”
“I agree. Totally. You really need to meet my mother. Because she’ll bless us and make our marriage official. Since we really need her blessing. Agreed?”
“Agreed.”
“Now let me smell your breath. So I can identify the hot sauce.”
“Why must you do that?”
“So I can use the same hot sauce on our wedding cake, silly. To celebrate the first night we met. Capisce?”
“Capisce.”
She approached me. Affording me a view of her long, tired face. Covered in scales. Reptilian. Evocative of something primitive. Something precious and indelible from my childhood lost long ago. I wanted to run from her, but I could not. Some mysterious force drew me to her, and we inched closer and closer toward one another. Succumbing to a power neither of us could fathom.
Review Differences and Similarities of Jim Crow 1.0 and 2.0 to Prepare for Writing Your Thesis
Key Differences Between Jim Crow 1.0 and 2.0
- 1.0 had segregation laws to reinforce the caste system whereas segregation in 2.0 is based on disparities in real estate wealth.
- In Jim Crow 1.0, violence was used to reinforce the caste system whereas in 2.0, as Childish Gambino’s “This Is America” illustrates, technological indolence, the apathy that results from social media addiction, becomes a way of impeding success and equality.
- Racism in 1.0 was generated from white resentment for losing the Civil War, losing their way of life romanticized by the lies of The Lost Cause, and scapegoating African Americans while racism in 2.0 is based on a global form of racism based on The Great Replacement Theory.
- The racial hierarchy in 1.0 was based on a ruling and servile class whereas 2.0 relies on the Prison Industrial Complex to generate millions of high-paying jobs in the Complex while creating cheap prison labor and a culture of lifelong incarceration.
Key Similarities Between Jim Crow 1.0 and 2.0
- Both 1.0 and 2.0 rely on caricature propaganda as a form of weaponized misinformation to reinforce racist attitudes and beliefs.
- Both 1.0 and 2.0 encourage violence and a race war to champion white ethnic tribalism under the guise of the Christian religion when in fact the Christian faith is a facade for a flagrant power grab. White nationalists are “Christian” in name only. In deed, they are servants of the devil.
- Both 1.0 and 2.0 attempt to impede constitutional rights by voter suppression and voter intimidation.
Sample #1 with emphasis on similarities
Whereas Jim Crow 1.0 was more terrifying than 2.0 in that it relied on segregation laws, white rage from losing the Civil War, and unencumbered lynchings with the cooperation of law enforcement and while 2.0 has more layers of complexities from existing in the social media age, both Jim Crow 1.0 and 2.0 have similarities based on weaponized misinformation, a mythology that supports a race war, and voter suppression.
Sample #2 with emphasis on differences
While Jim Crow 1.0 and 2.0 have similarities based on weaponized misinformation, a mythology that supports a race war, and voter suppression, Jim Crow 1.0 was the more virulent manifestation of racism because it relied on segregation laws, white rage from losing the Civil War, and unencumbered lynchings with the cooperation of law enforcement.
Sample #3 with emphasis on differences
While both Jim Crow 1.0 and 2.0 have similarities based on weaponized misinformation, a mythology that supports a race war, and voter suppression, in many ways it is more difficult to combat Jim Crow 2.0 because much of its racism is packaged as “the war on crime,” much of its racism is embedded in laws of systemic injustice that are difficult to glean from the morass of everyday life, much of its racism is based on the lethargy and moral apathy of indifference, and because people of all races are sleeping in a state of technological indolence that distracts them from the insidious forces of Jim Crow 2.0.
Structuring Your Essay
Suggested Outline for Essay 2, a Contrast-Comparison of Jim Crow 1.0 and Jim Crow 2.0
Paragraph 1: Write an extended definition of Jim Crow 1.0 (Building Block #1)
Paragraph 2: Write an extended definition of Jim Crow 2.0
Paragraph 3: Write a thesis that presents a contrast and comparison of Jim Crow 1.0 and Jim Crow 2.0.
Paragraphs 4-6: Show similarities between 1.0 and 2.0
Paragraphs 7-9: Show key differences between 1.0 and 2.0
Conclusion: a dramatic restatement of your thesis
Works Cited with 4 sources
Point by Point Method Comparison Contrast Essay
MLA Formatting In-Text Citations by Caruso
“This Is America”: Breaking Down Childish Gambino’s powerful new music video” by Sonia Rao in The Washington Post:
Rao observes that the beauty of body motion is juxtaposed to chaos throughout the video and that this juxtaposition is a metaphor for the seductive type of entertainment that we embrace that at the same time deflects us from the chaos and violence that besets our country. Entertainment and specifically dancing on a video, such as making a Tiktok, is a drug and an addiction that distracts us from America’s pressing crises.
Rao points out that the video begins with the original Jim Crow pose, the minstrel caricature standing with a gun in his hand, and he nonchalantly kills a black man to show the heartless manner blacks have suffered violence in America, especially Jim Crow America. One can barely watch George Floyd’s killer, a cop and convicted murderer Derek Chauvin nonchalantly sit on Floyd’s neck while Floyd pleads for his life.
Rao also observes that Gambino makes exaggerated facial expressions mimicking the caricatures whites used to disparage black Americans in the Jim Crow South as illustrated in Dr. Pilgrim’s Jim Crow Museum video.
Connecting Jim Crow violence of the South to today is the shooting of choir children, a reference to white supremacist Dylann Roof committing a massacre of African Americans at a Charleston church in 2015.
Not only does “This Is America” show us the normalization of violence against African Americans, it shows us the worship of the gun as a post-shooting gun is carefully placed atop a velvet pillow. After every mass shooting in America, there is political talk of gun control, but gun rights prevail with a spike in gun sales and no legislation passed.
Sonia Rao also points out that there is a hooded horseman on a white horse, a sign of chaos and The Apocalypse. Indeed, the video suggests that civil society is succumbing to chaos from the William Butler Yeats poem “The Second Coming” in which we read “the center will not hold, things fall apart.”
Rao also mentions that the cars in the video are all from the 80s and 90s, perhaps a reference to the Rodney King riots.
The final scene, with Gambino running in helpless terror, is a reference to The Sunken Place from Jordan Peel’s movie Get Out. Indeed, Peele and Glover are friends and Glover wrote some music played in Peele’s movie.
Why is the dancer scared? Because he’s been dancing and playing a role for white society all his life, being an entertainer, creating a silly persona to make white society happy and entertained, but this role imprisons the dancer; no longer able to withstand the dancing and performing for white America, he breaks down, panics, and runs away, a scared man beholden to The Sunken Place.
Commas are designed to help writers avoid confusing sentences and to clarify the logic of their sentences.
If you cook Jeff will clean the dishes. (Will you cook Jeff?)
While we were eating a rattlesnake approached us. (Were we eating a rattlesnake?)
Comma Rule 1: Use a comma before a coordinating conjunction (FANBOYS) joining two independent clauses.
Rattlesnakes are high in protein, but I’d rather eat a peanut butter sandwich.
Rattlesnakes are dangerous, and the desert species are even more so.
We are a proud people, for our ancestors passed down these famous delicacies over a period of five thousand years.
The exception to rule 1 is when the two independent clauses are short:
The plane took off and we were on our way.
Comma Rule 2: Use a comma after an introductory clause or phrase.
When Jeff Henderson was in prison, he developed an appetite for reading.
In the nearby room, the TV is blaring full blast.
Tanning in the hot Hermosa Beach sun for over two hours, I realized I had better call it a day.
The exception is when the short adverb clause or phrase is short and doesn’t create the possibility of a misreading:
In no time we were at 2,800 feet.
Comma Rule 3: Use a comma between all items in a series.
Jeff Henderson found redemption through hard work, self-reinvention, and social altruism.
Finding his passion, mastering his craft, and giving back to the community were all part of Jeff Henderson’s self-reinvention.
Comma Rule 4: Use a comma between coordinate adjectives not joined with “and.” Do not use a comma between cumulative adjectives.
The adjectives below are called coordinate because they modify the noun separately:
Jeff Henderson is a passionate, articulate, wise speaker.
The adjectives above are coordinate because they can be joined with “and.” Jeff Henderson is passionate and articulate and wise.
Adjectives that do not modify the noun separately are cumulative.
Three large gray shapes moved slowly toward us.
Chocolate fudge peanut butter swirl coconut cake is divine.
Comma Rule 5: Use commas to set off nonrestrictive (nonessential) elements.
Restrictive or essential information doesn’t have a comma:
For school the students need notebooks that are college-ruled.
Jeff’s cat that just had kittens became very aggressive.
Nonrestrictive:
For school the students need college-ruled notebooks, which are on sale at the bookstore.
Jeff Henderson’s mansion, which is located in Las Vegas, has a state-of-the-art kitchen.
My youngest sister, who plays left wing on the soccer team, now lives at The Sands, a beach house near Los Angeles.