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• to economize expression 5
• to emphasize an important point

A word of caution, however. Use both short simple sentences and fragments
sparingly. Used intentionally and infrequently, both can be effective. Overused, they
lose their punch or become more of a gimmick than a valuable technique. Also,
consider whether your audience will interpret a fragment as a grammatical error. If Grammar as Rhetoric and Style
you are confident that your audience will recognize your deliberate use of a fragment,
then use it. But if you think your instructor or reader will assume you made a mistake,
then it’s better to write a complete sentence. Again, if you use fragments infrequently,
then your audience is more likely to know you’re deliberately choosing what is
technically an incomplete sentence.

Exercises

exercise 1

Identify the simple sentences in the following selection from “The World 9/11 Took
from Us” by Omer Aziz ( p. 000 ).

There is something almost magical about New York as summer turns to fall. The
changing of the seasons brings a spirit of renewal. People hurry to school and work,
propelled by dreams and ambitions. The leaves shift from green to orange. But this
beauty is transient. In the evening, when I go on my walks, I look at the two blue lights
beaming into the heavens from just south of the old World Trade Center and I try to hold
my gaze there. I never last long.
When the Sept. 11 attacks happened, I was an 11-year-old Muslim boy suddenly
confused about the world and unsure of my place in it.
I heard the news while I was on the basketball court at recess at my school. A white
classmate rushed up to me. He said terrorists had hijacked airplanes and used them
to bring down the twin towers. He said America was under attack, that the border was
sealed. He said there were more planes in the sky.

Omer Aziz, “The World 9/11 Took From Us,” New York Times , September 11, 2019. Copyright © 2019 by The New York Times. All rights reserved.
Used under license.

exercise 2

Revise the selection in Exercise 1 by turning it into a series of short simple sentences.
Then revise it again to eliminate the simple sentences entirely by turning every sentence
into a compound, complex, or compound-complex sentence. How do your revisions
change the effect? Read the original excerpt; then read your revisions aloud, and listen
to the difference.

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Copyright © 2021 by Bedford, Freeman & Worth High School Publishers. Uncorrected proofs have been used in this sample chapter.
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