Fragment Practice 2 Answer Key
Identify any fragments in the following "sentences." Keep in mind that a sentence must
have a subject, have a verb, and express a complete thought.
Remember that the "ing" form of a verb is not a true verb unless it is preceded by a
helping verb.
Remember that the "to" form of the verb (the infinitive) is not a verb.
The following selection was adapted from Terry Kay's To Dance with the White Dog.
1. On the day after his father was buried. Fragment
2. James drove to the cementery in the pink-blue glaze of dawn.
3. The plot was still crowded with wreaths of flowers.
4. Flowers with bright, colorful faces and ribbon sashes. Fragment
5. And the white, mica-sand covering of the ground was pockmarked where people had
stood for the gravesite services.
6. And where chairs had been placed for the family. Fragment
7. James stood at the foot of the graves of his parents and his brother.
8. A brother he had not known. Fragment
9. A brother dead before his own birth. Fragment
10. And stared at the shadowed sand mounds. Fragment
11. Nothing was as permanent.
12. He turned and looked across the cementery.
13. His father had said the white dog would be there.
14. To look for the white dog at sunrise. Fragment
15. His father had said the white dog was his mother.
16. His father was wrong; there was no white dog at the cemetery.
17. Suddenly, a chill struck his neck and raced across his shoulders.
18. He could feel his heart racing.
19. His eyes scanning the cemetery. Fragment
20. James walked into the plot, between the grave mounds of his mother and father, and
he knelt.
21. Then he saw them.
22. Across the chest of sand on the grave of Robert Samuel Peek. Fragment
23. He saw the paw prints.
24. Prints so light that they could have been made by air. Fragment