How to avoid sentence fragments from your essay?

Sentence fragments are a very common mistake. Read the example given below. It is not an independent sentence because it does not have an independent clause.

• Although it is sometimes thought that studying at university is the best way to achieve a good job.

This sentence has two dependent clauses:

-although it is sometimes thought
-that studying at university is the best way to achieve a good job

As you can see both clauses begin with a conjunction (although, that). Such clauses are subordinate or dependent clauses.

They cannot make a sentence. You need at least one independent clause in a sentence. That means every sentence must have at least one clause that does not contain a conjunction.

Here you can solve the problem by simply removing ‘although’.

• It is sometimes thought that studying at university is the best way to achieve a good job.