Checking Your Own Writing

Checking your own writing

Fragments are easy to spot in someone else’s writing and hard to spot in your own. That is because you already know what you meant. The reader does not.

Check one line at a time. For each line, ask the two questions.

Watch it work

Here is a short piece of writing with four lines.

Line	Who or what?	What happens?	Fix
My class went to the farm.	My class	went to the farm	none needed
Saw a brown horse.	missing	saw a brown horse	add who
The horse ate an apple.	The horse	ate an apple	none needed
The best day ever.	The best day ever	missing	add what happens

Two lines were fine. Two were fragments, and each needed a different repair.

Fixed: “We saw a brown horse.” and “It was the best day ever.”

A checklist you can use

1. Read one line by itself, not the whole page.
2. Ask who or what.
3. Ask what happens.
4. If either answer is missing, add that part.
5. Check the capital letter and the period last.

Step one matters more than it sounds. Read a fragment along with the line before it and your brain fills in the missing part without telling you.

Your turn

Three of these five lines are fragments. Find them and say what each one needs.

1. “My little sister lost a tooth.”
2. “Under her pillow.”
3. “The tooth fairy came.”
4. “Left a shiny coin.”
5. “A very good night.”

Check your answers

1. Sentence.
2. Fragment. It tells where and nothing else. It needs both parts.
3. Sentence.
4. Fragment. It needs a naming part to tell who left the coin.
5. Fragment. It needs a telling part.

Remember

• Check one line at a time so your brain cannot fill in the gaps.
• Ask both questions on every line.
• Fix the missing part first and the marks last.