SOCE Correctional Officer Practice Exam 2025 - Free Correctional Officer Practice Questions and Study Guide

A sentence fragment is characterized by its lack of essential components needed to form a complete sentence. Specifically, it may be missing a subject, a verb, or both, which prevents it from conveying a full thought. For example, the phrase "running down the street" lacks a subject and cannot stand alone as a complete sentence because it does not provide a complete idea. Understanding this concept is crucial for effective writing and communication because complete sentences are necessary to clearly express thoughts and ideas.

The other options do not accurately describe sentence fragments. A complete thought is required for a sentence, and sentence fragments fail to meet this requirement. Furthermore, sentence fragments, by their very nature, can lack grammatical correctness or completeness, and they cannot function as standalone sentences.