Please use your own words

question 1 -

Merely a part of a sentence

A master stylist, ironically enough, often relies on brief sentence fragments to give emphasis and a sense of immediacy to his or her prose. This deliberate fragment should create a dramatic effect within a paragraph; it should serve some purpose, such as forcing the reader to look backward. If it doesn't don't use it. It would not be appropriate. Often only in content in which the fragment appears can tell whether to put it in or leave it out. Use sparingly, the fragment can be as effective as the rhetorical question or the short dramatic sentence. Used injudiciously, it is simply another ineffective gimmick.

Examples: Try a fragment

in a description

I wish you could have known the Southwest in the early days. The way it really was. The way the land seemed to reach out forever. And those endless blue stretches of sky! The incredi

ble clarity of air which made distance an illusion. I wish I could make you see it so your would understand my nostalgia, nostalgia and sorrow for a wonder that is no more.

for Transition --

Now, on with the story.

But to get back to the subject.

So much for that.

Next? the crucial question to be answered.

in structuring a question or an answer --

But how?

What then? Nothing.

Based on logic? Hardly!

Where and when and why?

Upon what does wisdom finally depend? Primarily upon the ability to know and understand -- to see through sham.

for making exclamations and for emphasis --

What a price to pay!

All these achievements before his twenty -third birthday!

There is a price to fame. The agonizing price of self-demial the price of blood and sweat and tears.

. and sometimes in aphorisms or fragment of cliches--

The more the merrier for them, too.

Early to bed!

A bird in the hand, old buddy, Remember?

Absolute power corrupting once more.

Checkpoints:

if you are in the habit of writing fragmentary sentences, don't think that you have already mastered this pattern!

This pattern is a deliberate styling device. It can never be merely an accident or a mistake in sentence structure or punctuation.

Your turn:

In your reading look for highly styled, deliberate fragments used for dramatic effect. Copy One (1) fragment and add a brief comment about its function or purpose.

One ( 1 ) sentence

1. Example

2. Comment