Transcript Using Fragments.ppt

Using Fragments
A fragment is a part of a sentence that is capitalized and
punctuated as if it were a complete sentence.
Although fragments are seldom used in formal prose, they
form the backbone of most conversations. Here’s how a
typical bit of dialogue might go:
“Where are you going tonight?” (sentence)
“To Woodland Mall.” (fragment)
“What for?” (fragment)
“To buy some shoes.” (fragment)
“Alone?” (fragment)
“No, with Maisie Perkins.” (fragment)
“Can I come too?” (sentence)
“Sure.” (fragment)
As with most conversations, the sprinkling of complete sentences
makes the fragments clear.
Writers of nonfiction use fragments to create special effects. In the
following passage, the fragment emphasizes the importance of the
question it asks and varies the pace of the writing:
Before kidney transplants, people had an ethical unease about renal
dialysis—the artificial kidney machine. Unquestionably I was a great
technical advance making it possible to treat kidney dysfunctions from
which thousands die. But the machine was, and is, expensive and involves
intensive care of the patient by doctors and nurses. For whom the machine?
In the United States the dilemma was evaded but not solved by having lay
panels, like juries, making life-or-death choices. In Britain, where the
National Health Service entitles everyone, rich or poor, to have access to
any necessary treatment, the responsibility rests on the medical staff. It
was (and still is) a difficult decision.
Lord Ritchie-Calder, “The Doctor’s Dilemma”
Once in a while, as in the following examples, a writer will use a whole
series of fragments. In the Ciardi selection, the fragments heighten the ironic
effect. In the following one, they create a kaleidoscopic effect that mirrors the
kaleidoscopic impressions offered by the Jazz Age itself.
Or look at any of the women’s magazines. There, as Bernard Devoto
once pointed out, advertising begins as poetry of the front matter is the
dream of perfect beauty that must be hers. These, the flawless teeth. This
the baby skin that must be hers. This, the perfumed breath she must
exhale. This, the sixteen-year-old figure she must display at forty, at fifty, at
sixty, and forever.
John Ciardi, “What Is Happiness?”
The Jazz Age offers a kaleidoscope of shifting impressions. Of novelties
quickly embraced and quickly discarded. Of flappers flaunting bobbed hair
and short skirts. Of hip flasks and bootleg whisky, fast cars and coonskin
coats, jazz and dancing till dawn. And overall a sense of futility, an uneasy
conviction that all the gods were dead.
Elliott L. Smith and Andrew W. Hart,
The Shorty Story: A Contemporary Looking Glass
Before using any fragment in your own writing, think carefully
about your intended effect and explore other ways of achieving
it. Unless only a fragment will serve your needs, don’t use one;
fragments are likely to be viewed as unintentional—and thus
errors—in the work of inexperienced writers.