Common types and possible causes of sentence fragment among second year student of english education at can tho universuty

CANTHO UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF EDUCATION ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTMENT COMMON TYPES AND POSSIBLE CAUSES OF SENTENCE FRAGMENTS AMONG SECOND-YEAR STUDENTS OF ENGLISH EDUCATION AT CANTHO UNIVERSITY B.A Thesis Supervisor: Student: Hồ Xuân Tiên Nguyễn Văn Lợi, Ph.D Code: 7075910, Course 33 Class: NN0752A2 Cần Thơ, 4/2011 Sentence fragments- possible causes and the most common types ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS From the beginning to the end of the process of writing this thesis, I had many difficulties; however, I have luckily received the boundless help and the great encouragement from my parents, teachers, and friends; especially, my supervisor, Dr Nguyen Van Loi, who has helped me to shape ideas, has given me advice, guidance, corrections, encouragement and relevant sources for the accomplishment of this study I would like to express my deep gratitude to him Without his important help, I could not have completed my research on time I would like to thank all my teachers in the English Education department, School of Education, Cantho University for their lectures which are the foundation for my study I would also like to send my thankful message to Mrs Ngo Thi Trang Thao, Mrs Truong Nguyen Quynh Nhu, Mr Do Xuan Hai, Mrs Chung Thi Thanh Hang and Mrs Tran Thi Chau Pha, who helped me to correct my proposal from first steps, provided me with useful ideas, helped me to collect writing papers of students and correct my drafts I am also indebted to my family for the encouragement whenever I have difficulties or stresses during the time of work Finally, I am grateful to the students of English Education class 01, 02 course 33, 34, 35, and 36 They have given me the sincere help, encouragement and provided many writing papers that constitute the data for this study Sentence fragments- possible causes and the most common types ABSTRACT This study attempts to find out the causes for and the most common kind of sentence fragments which occur among the English Education major students of Cantho University, using data from interviews and writing papers The two kinds of data were collected from 40 second-year students during the second semester of the school year 2011 when they took Writing courses The data analysis reveals that the students often have trouble with sentence fragments possibly because of their attitude to study Grammar or Writing courses and the influence of the mother tongue; and fragments which lack a main verb and the ones which are the subordinate clauses are the two most common kinds This study also suggests some helpful strategies for teachers and students in teaching and learning sentence errors, especially sentence fragments Sentence fragments- possible causes and the most common types TÓM TẮT Bài nghiên cứu sử dụng liệu từ vấn viết sinh viên nhằm tìm nguyên nhân loại câu fragment (câu không hoàn chỉnh) phổ biến mà sinh viên ngành Sư phạm Anh văn trường Đại học Cần Thơ thường mắc phải Việc thu thập số liệu tiến hành 40 sinh viên năm thứ hai trình họ học môn Viết học kỳ năm học 2011 Kết cho thấy sinh viên thường gặp rắc rối với câu fragment hai nguyên nhân chính: thái độ học tập hai môn Ngữ Pháp Viết, ảnh hưởng tiếng mẹ đẻ Câu phụ thiếu mệnh đề câu thiếu động từ hai loại câu không hoàn chỉnh phổ biến Cuối cùng, nghiên cứu đưa số số góp ý tham khảo cho giáo viên sinh viên việc dạy học lỗi câu, đặc biệt lỗi câu không hoàn chỉnh Sentence fragments- possible causes and the most common types Contents ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ABSTRACT TÓM TẮT CONTENTS CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW What is a mistake or an error? What is a fragment? Types of sentence fragment 10 Causes of errors in learning the second language 12 CHAPTER 3: METHOD .14 Research design 14 Participants and sample 14 Data collection .14 3.1 Writing papers .14 3.2 Interview 15 Research process 15 Procedure for data analysis 17 5.1 Steps in errors analysis 17 5.2 Steps in interview analysis .18 CHAPTER 4: RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS 19 Writing papers 19 Interview 20 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION, LIMITATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 25 Conclusion 25 Limitations of the study 25 Recommendations 25 3.1 Recommendation for students 25 3.2 Recommendation for teachers 26 3.3 Recommendation for later research 26 Sentence fragments- possible causes and the most common types APPENDIX .27 APPENDIX .34 REFERENCES 33 Sentence fragments- possible causes and the most common types CHAPTER INTRODUCTION Writing is one of the important and necessary skills for students of English But writing is a complicated process of conveying information, which is often difficult for students to learn Making mistakes in writing is therefore very common From my observation, many students whose major is English Education often make errors in sentence fragments when they write in English I am very surprised at this phenomenon and wish to understand it by doing a mini- research on sentence fragments Sentence fragment is a common error in Writing Andrea (2010) introduced twenty common types of errors which appear frequently in the writing papers, and fragments sentences are among these typical errors In the same way, Kahn (2011) also agrees that fragment sentence is one of the mistakes writers should avoid In addition, fragments are also listed as the most common errors in writing essays (Flemming, 2011) Students commonly find themselves either with a long winded sentence or one that is not a complete idea This is also a very common problem among professional writers For fragment sentences, it is important to express a freestanding idea in the sentence This type of sentence errors has been described and discussed a lot in books about academic writing Foll (2001), Glencoe (2001), Langan (1997), and Marchant (2000) described the types of sentence fragments which students often produce However, these writings have not pointed out the most common type of sentence fragments, as well as the causes of making mistakes in this kind of sentence error This research aims to find out the types of sentence fragments that Vietnamese commonly produce, and discover the causes for this Specifically, the research investigates the two following questions: Question 1: What types of sentence fragments occur among the English Education major students in Cantho University, and what is the most common type? Question 2: What are possible causes for the errors? Sentence fragments- possible causes and the most common types With what I draw out at the end of this study, I think that my study can help teachers to know the fact of making errors of sentence fragments of the second-year English Education major students in CTU, and then they can consider it as a suggestion for changing the teaching method to be more effective To students, the study can help them to be more careful and be able to avoid this type of sentence error when they write; therefore, the writing skill of students can be improved The report for the study is outlined in five chapters: Chapter 1: Introduction This chapter has presented the the reasons why I am interested in this topic and the research questions Chapter 2: Literature Review This chapter is the review of literature which provides a critical assessment of what has been written about the topic such as definition of sentence fragments, kinds of sentence fragments, main causes of making erors in sentence fragments Chapter 3: Research Methods In this chapter, I present the research design, participants, instruments, and research procedure I make this research Chapter 4: Results and discussions This chapter will present the error types related to sentence fragments, the most common kind of errors in sentence fragments and the causes of this The data is analyzed and based on the writing papers of English Education major students and the result of interview Chapter 5: Conclusion, limitations, and recommendations Finally, the conclusion is made, and some implications are raised Sentence fragments- possible causes and the most common types CHAPTER LITERATURE REVIEW This chapter is the review of literature which provides a critical assessment of what has been written about the topic such as distinguishing between a mistake and an error, definition of sentence fragments, kinds of sentence fragments, the sentence fragment, a typical problem, and the influences of the first language on the process of learning the second language What is a mistake or an error? This study examines errors in sentence production, so it is necessary to define what is meant by ‘error’ Corder (1997) stated errors are typically produced by people who not yet fully command some institutionalized language system Meanwhile, according to Haryanto (2007) “error” is the failure to use the grammatical system correctly made by students which is caused by lack of student’s competence Errors themselves are competence errors True errors are of the learners’ competence (Richards, 1974) Errors are caused by deficiency in competence and a short coming in the knowledge of language Learners make errors when they have not learnt something correctly Mistake is different from error A mistake refers to a performance error, in that it is failure to utilize a known system correctly (Brown, 1980) The learners, who make mistakes, will sometimes use one form and sometimes the others This shows the inconsistency A mistake is an understanding of something that is not correct or a wrong action attributable to bad judgment or ignorance or inattention For example, “he wasn't going to admit his mistake”; "he made a bad mistake” The mistake here means the wrong action which can cause some effects “Error” means the condition of having incorrect or false knowledge; it is sometimes the synonym of a mistake For example, “I made an error in my calculations.” However, it is necessary to distinguish two this concepts According to Haryanto (2007), “mistake” refers to the failures to use the language system correctly caused by some factors such as carelessness, memory lapses, and physical condition, while error Sentence fragments- possible causes and the most common types refers to the failure to use the system correctly caused by lack of learners’ competence In this study, I consider the sentence fragment as an error What is a fragment? It is impossible to discuss sentence fragments without an understanding of the sentence concept According to Werner and Baker (1997), every complete sentence in English has at least one subject and one verb A simple sentence has one subject-verb combination A compound sentence is composed of two or more simple sentences Langan (1997, p.97), added that every sentence must have a subject and a verb and must express a complete thought However, when an incomplete sentence is punctuated as though it were a complete sentence, a fragment can occur In general, there are two different ways to understand the concept of sentence fragments First, some linguists define sentence fragments by what components the sentences lack According to Morgan (2010), sentence fragments are sentences that lack one or more of the necessary components of a sentence What are the necessary components of a sentence? They are a subject and a verb In more details, Raimes (2001) defines a sentence fragment as an incomplete sentence It can occur when a subject is missing, when there is not a complete verb, or when there is no subject-predicate structure in an independent clause Meanwhile Abram (2000) defines fragments as incomplete sentences which miss a verb or a subject or both Let’s consider three examples below Example 1: Running for the bus that was turning the corner In this example, although this sentence consists of one subject “the bus”, and two verbs “run” and “was turning”, it is not a complete sentence The important component which is not present is the subject We need to know who did the action “run” This is one case of sentence fragment Example 2: The feeling of cool sand running through your toes Similarly, the example above is also a sentence fragment In this sentence, only a noun phrase stands as the subject of the sentence, but the main verb is absent This makes Sentence fragments- possible causes and the most common types a sentence, etc It means the awareness of differences between English and Vietnamese structures has not been deep and enough Therefore, the fact of making mistakes is certain Question 5, question 6: Can you describe the process in which you write something (e.g., an essay); you tend to translate ideas in Vietnamese into English? How? Idea Number Ways of translate Translation 15 (71.4%) Number Translate word by (13.3%) word 13 (86.7%) Think Vietnamese, in then translate into English No translation (28.6%) Review before handing in 20 (95.2%) No review before handing (4.8%) in It is very surprising when the results in the table above shows that 71.4% of students interviewed still keep the habit of translation when they write They have not escaped from the influences of the mother tongue The majority think in Vietnamese, after that the process of writing begins Sometimes, they write a complete sentence in Vietnamese, and then translate it into English word by word, for instance student (7) and student (31) When the students produce writings, 95.2% of them review what they write; nevertheless, the fact that the student who dislikes Writing ignores to look back still happens This student considers writing is a duty, producing the writing paper is completion The students who participate in the interview have trouble with sentence fragments Generally, they have already studied about them but they not remember what they are The possible causes of making errors of sentence fragments among students of English Education at CTU may be the attitude in studying, or the method the lecturers 23 Sentence fragments- possible causes and the most common types teaching them in class and the influence of the first language on the process of learning the second language 24 Sentence fragments- possible causes and the most common types CHAPTER CONCLUSION, LIMITATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS Conclusion From the research, after synthesizing and analyzing the data, we can consider that English Education major students still have trouble with sentence fragments, especially the fragments as subordinate clauses This is proved by the result from the research that 77.5% of students handing in writing papers make errors in sentence fragments (42.1%) The behavior when taking Grammar and Writing course and the influence of the mother tongue may be two main causes English Education major students make errors in sentence fragments This fact is worth to noticing Also, in this study, I would like give some suggestions to help students avoid this kind of sentence errors Limitations of the study The first limitation of this study is that the scale of research is small and, so it the research is tentative I just focus on sentence fragments, not all types of sentence errors; therefore, it is very difficult to get large number of errors to analyze I could only collect 40 writing papers If I have more time, I will research on a larger scale because the more papers are collected, the more reliable the study is Secondly, I also have difficulties in finding materials to write literature review Academic articles about the sentence fragments are many; however, they are nearly alike There are also not many studies on this kind of sentence errors Thus, I had to spend much time to search the information Recommendations 3.1 Recommendation for students Firstly, English Education major students should have good behaviors when they attend to courses, specifically Grammar and Writing to get exact information as well as useful knowledge They also ought to review the lesson of grammar because they are very helpful in Writing In addition, the students have to focus more on the 25 Sentence fragments- possible causes and the most common types structures during the process of writing, they have to insure that all their sentences have the subject, the main verb and show the complete thought Secondly, to limit the bad effects of sentence fragments, students try to think and produce the writing papers in English They need to avoid the habit of translation when they write because the sentence structures in English and those in Vietnamese are different Misunderstanding between two languages can cause some trouble in writing; and if the sentences they write are incomplete in meaning because of lacking the important components, that means they make errors in sentence fragments 3.2 Recommendation for teachers To help students not to make errors in sentence fragments, grammar teachers should go to an agreement to consider that this is a common error which needs to be noticed And the content of the studying program should include this sentence error, teachers not think it is very simple because the fact is that English Education major students still make erors in it Moreover, in Writing and Writing course, it is important to review sentence fragments The comprehensible input in the presence of a low affective filter is the only thing that can cause second language acquisition In other words, if the second language learners are exposed to lots and lots of comprehensible input in a non-stressful or at least low-stress situation, they will acquire the second language (Krashen, 1985) 3.3 Recommendation for later research Because my research is small, my conclusion of the causes of making errors in sentence fragments is just a hypothesis I hope the later researchers with more extensive studies will examine what I draw out from this research The conclusion of the causes of this type of sentence error is very useful for not only learners but also teachers Writers can avoid using sentence fragments, and their writings will be better 26 Sentence fragments- possible causes and the most common types APPENDIX SENTENCE FRGMENTS IN WHICH SECOND-YEAR ENGLISH EADUCATION MAJOR STUDENTS IN CTU MAKE ERRORS Stude nt Kind of Topic Sentence fragments My house Moreover, in this room also store many Lack a subject (1) fragments memory photos of family How to make a Such as, to share in the responsibility of Lack both a (2) good your family, to share the weal and woe subject and a relationship with your friends and to share every bowl verb with people of rice and every bit of clothes with around you? Describe (3) unlucky people in the hard times the Moreover, with Ba Dong beach, the air Lack a main beauty of your very fresh verb hometown Tet Apricot blossom that a symbol of Tet verb (4) My house Next to the yard, it is a flower garden Lack a subject (5) where have many beautiful flowers Love Similar to my family love, country love Lack a main (6) also available in myself “Money (7) Lack a main is Many people think that money is unusual Lack a subject power”, what because having something cannot be you think bought by money about verb this 27 Sentence fragments- possible causes and the most common types saying? your Give opinion on it Money (7) is a Although money is very important in our Subordinate power life because it is one of things help clause everyone have good living condition “Money is Because people change materials into Subordinate power”, what money to know that material’s value clause you think (8) about this saying? Give your opinion on it Advantages of Because they always hope that their subordinate (9) (10) the correction students is more and more progressive in clause of teacher learning Love in life The first reason of love that makes the life lack a main better Money (11) a They may true in many cases power Money (11) is verb power Lack a main verb is a This is not true because whether have the Lack a subject happiness or not depend on the outlook you see the life, not the large number of money you have (12) Is it true that While we recognize the chances because Subordinate 28 Sentence fragments- possible causes and the most common types joining WTO of joining WTO clause (World Trade Organization), Vietnam has got only benefits? Is it true that Besides, we have to against gragmatics Lack a main joining WTO lifestyle and run after profits verb (World Trade (12) Organization), Vietnam has got only benefits? Money is not Money that people has been searching it Subordinate (13) power for survive and improve their life clause Money is not For those who are already lucky such as Subordinate (13) (14) (15) (16) (17) power being born in a rich family clause Money is not Because they living and doing by their Subordinate power heart clause My house Kitchen where my brother cooks meals for Subordinate family My happy One of the happiest thing that I have got Subordinate memory My clause passing the exam at university clause favorite Third, in there have a lot of trees, the air is Lack a subject 29 Sentence fragments- possible causes and the most common types city fresh Should or Because they think that their parents will subordinate shouldn’t (18) help them clause teenagers live with parents until marriage? My (19) favorite Second, in the cities has a lot of company Lack a subject city and industrial areas so people can find a job suitable with themselves (20) My friend She not only a good student but she also Lack a main takes part in class and school My teacher verb In short, study writing with Mss Thao, this Lack a main (21) is easy to understand and special I know a verb new method that study with portfolio (22) My experience Because there are many difficulties in the subordinate front Should or Because they are worn the clothes of subordinate shouldn’t (23) clause school they love clause students wear uniform to school? Money and its When a person has money, then that Lack a main (24) effects on person the power to what he wants to verb many fields (25) My best friend She usually wears common clothes but it Lack a main very clean and neat 30 verb Sentence fragments- possible causes and the most common types People are Because ancient construction makes value Subordinate never satisfied of pagoda clause with what they have They tend to reach (26) something better different or Do you agree or disagree with the idea? My house It was built many years ago but it still new Lack a main because it is cleaned every year by my verb (27) father (27) My house One of rooms I like best it a living room Lack a main where my family to come together verb Money is a It is true that many rich people who was Subordinate (28) power born and grew up in wealthy family clause Disadvantages Developing , hastening, industrialization Lack a subject (29) when joining and modernization, increasing quality of and a verb WTO society…because of inward investment for healthy, education, … Money is a Because the life demands many things and Subordinate (30) power more and more people tend to the material clause life than the mental life 31 Sentence fragments- possible causes and the most common types People are No place for satisfied person Lack both a never satisfied subject and a with what main verb they have They tend to (31) reach something better or different Do you agree or disagree with the idea? People are In for a penny, in for a pound is an Lack a subject never satisfied expression to prove for these with what they have They tend to (31) reach something better or different Do you agree or disagree with the idea? People are It is true that many rich people who was Subordinate never satisfied born and grew up in wealthy family (31) with what they have They tend to reach 32 clause Sentence fragments- possible causes and the most common types something better or different Do you agree or disagree with the idea? 33 Sentence fragments- possible causes and the most common types APPENDIX BẢNG CÂU HỎI PHỎNG VẤN Câu 1: Bạn có nghĩ môn Viết môn học quan trọng không? Nếu có, quan trọng nào? ………………………………………………………………………………………… ….……………………………………………………………………………… Câu 2: Bạn có nghe câu fragments (câu không hoàn chỉnh) chưa? Nếu có, chúng loại nào? ………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… Câu 3: Bạn có học câu fragments (câu không hoàn chỉnh) chưa? Nếu rồ,i bạn học nào? ………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… Câu 4: Bạn có nhận thấy khác cấu trúc câu tiếng Việt cấu trúc câu tiếng Anh không? Nếu có, khác gì? ………………………………………………………………………………………… …………………………………………………………………………………… Câu 5: 34 Sentence fragments- possible causes and the most common types Bạn mô tả trình viết luận không? Bạn thường làm từ lúc đọc đề đến lúc viết luận hoàn chỉnh? ………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………… Câu 6: Khi viết, bạn có xu hướng tìm ý tiếng Việt trước dịch sang tiếng Anh không? Nếu có, bạn dịch nào? ………………………………………………………………………………………… ………………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………………………………………………………………… 35 Sentence fragments- possible causes and the most common types REFERENCES Abram, R (2000) The Sentence Frgaments and the Run-on Sentences Icon Logic Andrea, A (2010) 20 Most Common Errors Retrieved February 12, 2011, from The Every Writer: http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/everyday-writer3e/20errors/12.html Brown, J D (1980) Principles in Language Learning and Teaching New Jersey: Pretice Hall Corder, S P (1974) Error Analysis Oxford: Oxfrod University Press Flemming, G (2010) Sentence problems Retrieved January 19, 2011, from About.com Guide: http://homeworketips.about.com/od/improvingyourgrammar/a/fragments.htm Foll, S (2001) Fragments Retrieved January 19, 2011, from Bigdog: http://aliscot.com/bigdog/fragments.htm Glencoe, J (2001) Grammar and Composition New York: McGraw-Hill Haryanto, T (2007) Grammatical Error Analysis Retrieved February 13, 2011, from Scribd.com: http://scribd.com/doc/33390282/Grammatical-Error-Analysis Kahn, J (2011) Common Mistakes of English Grammar, Mechanics and Punctuation Illinois: Illinois State University Krashen, S (1985) The Input Hypothesis New York: Longman Lado, R (1971) Language Teaching: a sciencetific approach New York: McGraw-Hill Langan, J (2002) Sentence Skills with Readings New York: McGraw-Hill Marchant, B (n.d.) Common causes of sentence fragments Retrieved January 19, 2011 Miniam, M (2010) The Influence of First Language Grammar (L1) on the English Language (L2) Writing of Tamil Students: A Case Study from Malaysia Tamil: Language in India-Strength for Today and Bright Hpoe for Tomorrow Morgan, C (2010) Fragments and Run-on Sentences Grockit Raimes, A (2001) Grammar Troublespots The City University of New York: Hunter College Richard, J (1974) Error Analysis England: Longman Group Ltd Seliger, H W & Shohamy, E (1989) Second Language Research Methods New York: Oxford University Press thefreedictionary.com (n.d.) Retrieved January 17, 2011, from Definition of Error: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/error Vo, T N (2007) Difficulties in English Writing Long Xuyen: An Giang University Werner, P K & Baker, L R (1997) Interraction Two: A Writing Process Book New York: McGraw-Hill 36 Sentence fragments- possible causes and the most common types Yates, R & Kennel, J (2002) Responding to sentence-level errors in writing Boston: Tesol Quarterly 37 [...]... errors in sentence fragments 2 Participants and sample The subjects of my research are a group of English Education major students at the second year of English Education Department, Can Tho University The participants are 40 second- year students of English Education Department Writing samples were collected randomly from these students by stratified sampling method 3 Data collection The data were collected... 23 Sentence fragments- possible causes and the most common types teaching them in class and the influence of the first language on the process of learning the second language 24 Sentence fragments- possible causes and the most common types CHAPTER 5 CONCLUSION, LIMITATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 1 Conclusion From the research, after synthesizing and analyzing the data, we can consider that English Education. .. percentage of each types of sentence fragments N1: total of each types of sentence fragments : Total of the whole sentence fragments 17 Sentence fragments- possible causes and the most common types 5.2 Steps in interview analysis The data from the interview was analyzed through 3 steps: * Making statistics of the answers To each interview question, the answers were classified in groups of the same ideas, and. .. subject-predicate combination Readers do not know what the writer wants to show Second, sentence fragments are defined in terms of the completion of sentence meaning According to Langan (1987, p 97), a sentence that lacks a subject or a verb and does not express a complete thought is a fragment In the same words, Abram (2000) stated that a sentence fragment is a group of words that cannot stand alone as a sentence. .. the most common kind of sentence fragments and the causes of this 1 Writing papers After trying to find out the sentence fragments in 40 writing papers of English Education major students, I draw out some results First of all, it is necessary to synthesize all kinds of sentence fragments in their writing papers in the following table The number Percentage Kinds of sentence fragments of errors 2 Fragment. .. show that there are still 14.3% of students who have not heard about this kind of sentence errors Meanwhile 85.7% among the students who make errors in sentence fragments state that the concept of sentence fragments is an old one It means it is not strange for them to know However, when answering the question: “What are 21 Sentence fragments- possible causes and the most common types they?”, the students... 15 Sentence fragments- possible causes and the most common types I collected 40 writing papers of English Education major students at the second- year in CTU to analyze * Analyzing these writing papers: Basing on the writing papers I have collected, I analyzed them in 3 sections: how many sentence fragment they make, in what kinds of sentence fragments they make errors and which kind is the most common. .. This student considers writing is a duty, producing the writing paper is completion The students who participate in the interview have trouble with sentence fragments Generally, they have already studied about them but they do not remember what they are The possible causes of making errors of sentence fragments among students of English Education at CTU may be the attitude in studying, or the method... common type of sentence fragments of this error was reached by basing on the occurrence of this type in writing papers of a group of English Education major students in Cantho University A descriptive research often describes data and characteristics about the phenomenon being studied; however, it cannot describe what caused a situation Therefore, I also used interview, to discover the causes of making... students have to focus more on the 25 Sentence fragments- possible causes and the most common types structures during the process of writing, they have to insure that all their sentences have the subject, the main verb and show the complete thought Secondly, to limit the bad effects of sentence fragments, students try to think and produce the writing papers in English They need to avoid the habit of