Well a lot then depends on the "clippings". Swords are rosette plants and grow from a crown. They also produce runners from which small plantlets develop. If the clipping is a runner, or plantlet from a runner, then they are easy to grow, you just plant them.
Dividing a large crown is possible, and if correctly done, is again, simply a matter of planting the piece. To sucessfuly produce a crown division, the growth tip, (the meristem), must be divided and part of it appear on both sides of the division. Even if this is acheived, sometimes the damage done is to great, and the meristem rots which will prevent the plant from growing, therefore very clean very sharp tools must be used.
If the clippings are leaves, you have even less chance, but if you have the time, patience and curiosity to experiment - it can be done. The approach is to lay the leaf on some wet soil, and make small cuts across 3-4 of the major "veins" in the leaf. If you have some, some rooting hormone should be applied to the cuts. The leaf must be kept wet and under good light. If you are lucky, the leaf was still growing when it was cut off, and growth may continue. If it does, a new growth axis can form where the cuts are, and a new root can develop there, eventually you have one or more small plants growing from the wreckage of the old leaf. I have raised a few aquarium and terrestrial plants using this method but it is very "hit and miss" sometimes it works great and I get a dozen new plants, sometimes I can try for a year or more and get none!
