Better sentence-writing in 30 minutes a day - Dianna Campbell 1995

Type 2: Fragment involving an -ing verb
A sentence-combining approach to the problem of fragments
Sentence combining: basic strategies and common problems

A type 2 fragment may look less familiar, but it’s not difficult to understand. This type also has a subject and a predicate and lacks a sense of independence. But this time there is no conjunction involved. Here the problem is an -ing verb used alone in a sentence of one clause. For example:

1. Many African-Americans joyfully celebrating Kwanzaa each winter.

2. The tradition of Easter eggs having its roots in early Germanic custom.

3. The pearl being an essential ingredient in many love potions.

Each of these three fragments has a subject and a predicate, but the -ing verb used alone robs each one of its sense of independence.

To solve this type of fragment, you can use three different approaches. One is to add a helping verb. For example:

1. (a) Many African-Americans are joyfully celebrating Kwanzaa each winter.

We added the helping verb are.

Another method is to change the -ing verb to a different verb form. For example:

2. (a) The tradition of Easter eggs had its roots in early Germanic custom.

We changed having to had.

A third solution calls for treating the -ing verb and the words after it as a phrase that describes the subject. Then you add an entirely new predicate to the sentence. For example:

3. (a) The pearl, being an essential ingredient in many love potions, was highly valued by superstitious romantics.

We added the predicate was highly valued by superstitious romantics.

A note about being: The word being is often the culprit in this type of fragment. Being is a form of the verb to be. So being should be changed to another form of the verb to be—a word such as is, am, are, were, or will be.