Is it incorrect to use a sentence fragment to answer a question?

Question

In an English essay, I wrote: > What am I looking at? People enjoying themselves? I lost points for using a sentence fragment. Is it truly incorrect to use a sentence fragment this way?

Answer 1

It is acceptable to use occasional sentence fragments in some forms (but not all - if you are on the job you will have an editor and need to check) of professional business, science, news and sports writing.

But in an English classroom, a teacher is often obliged to teach academic writing - the kind you are most likely to do in college - and academic writing requires strict formatting (such as no sentence fragments), as well as formatted bibliographies, etc.

The short answer is: do it the way the teacher wants you to, because the Board of Education wants the teacher to teach it that way.

Answer 2

WHAT AM I LOOKING AT? Is a complete sentence, however, "People enjoying themselves" is not a complete sentence. Sentence should have been... What am I looking at people enjoying themselves?

Answer 3

This depends on the type of writing. It's good practice to avoid sentence fragments in all academic writing (anything for high school/ college). It's fine in creative writing though.