grammaticality - Fragments in speech vs Fragments in novels?


Why is it that authors will use fragments in writing to emulate speech, but it is considered grammatically incorrect?



Answer



As mentioned in Sentence Fragments



You may have noticed that newspaper and magazine journalists often use a dependent clause as a separate sentence when it follows clearly from the preceding main clause, as in:.


The current city policy on housing is incomplete as it stands. Which is why we believe the proposed amendments should be passed.



This is a conventional journalistic practice, often used for emphasis.
For academic writing and other more formal writing situations, however, you should avoid such journalistic fragment sentences.


Fragments are grammatically incorrect, since they:



are incomplete sentences. Usually, fragments are pieces of sentences that have become disconnected from the main clause.
Some fragments [...] are written as main clauses but lack a subject or main verb



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