ShmoopTube

00:03

Here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by chess. We actually had a really beautiful

00:08

chess set once, but we pawned it.

00:12

How would you correct the underlined portion of the following sentence, if at all?

00:16

Andy had lost 7 games of chess in a row, but he was not deterred; besides, he suggested

00:22

that we play best of 15.

00:31

The semicolon signals two independent clauses, so the transition word in question deals with

00:35

the relationship between them.

00:37

The first clause introduces Andy's feelings about his extensive losses, while the second

00:43

clause clarifies Andy's possibly misplaced optimism with an example.

00:51

We can easily nix choice (A) because "besides" is never used to provide an example.

00:56

Instead, it's used to add one idea to another. An example might be, "Besides being a terrible

01:02

chess player, Andy was also a terrible kisser."

01:11

Aside from it being kinda redundant, see how the one idea is layered on top of the other?

01:15

Of course, this isn't what the sentence is going for at all; therefore, we can say goodbye

01:19

to (A).

01:20

Choice (C) makes a similar mistake to (A). Like "besides," "moreover" is a transition

01:25

used to add more information.

01:27

We could say, "Andy was a terrible chess player; moreover, he was a terrible person who liked

01:32

to kick puppies," and it would be correct.

01:34

Anyway, (C) doesn't help us set up an example, so we can take it out of consideration.

01:40

Choice (B) offers "hence" as the solution, but this doesn't do the job either. "Hence"

01:45

is used to show how something is caused by something else.

01:49

"Andy had never played chess before; hence, he was terrible at it," would be correct.

02:01

But again, this sentence is looking for a transition that sets up an example, and establishing

02:05

a cause and effect relationship doesn't help.

02:08

We dub choice (D) the right answer for its use of "in fact," which is often used to set

02:13

up examples.

02:14

Here, it correctly sets up the example of just how determined Andy is to win this next

02:19

game of chess, despite the odds.

02:21

We love Andy's enthusiasm, but don't share his confidence. Let's hope he's not a betting

02:26

man...

Full Transcript