ShmoopTube
Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.
Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos
ACT Videos 473 videos
ACT English: Punctuation Drill 3, Problem 4. Which choice best formats this list of items?
ACT English: Punctuation Drill 2, Problem 1. Which choice of punctuation best completes the sentence?
ACT English: Punctuation Drill 2, Problem 2. Where should the semi-colon be placed?
ACT English 1.7 Passage Drill 208 Views
Share It!
Description:
ACT English: Passage Drill 1, Problem 7. Which punctuation best fits before this list?
Transcript
- 00:04
Here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by the Exocarp: the X-man whose mutant power
- 00:10
is exuding the fishy smell of carp.
- 00:27
How would you correct this underlined segment from the passage, if at all?
- 00:31
layers the
- 00:32
And here are the potential answers:
Full Transcript
- 00:38
Our sensors are detecting one nasty run-on sentence.
- 00:41
Without the proper punctuation, this sentence is a monstrous mush of words that's close
- 00:45
to incomprehensible.
- 00:46
Our original sentence ends with a list, which describes the three layers of the coconut.
- 00:51
Without the proper punctuation to introduce this list, we've got a serious case of run-on pandemonium.
- 00:57
Therefore, we can nix choice (A), since it doesn't use any punctuation whatsoever.
- 01:01
Choice (C) makes an effort at punctuating by sliding a comma in between the list and
- 01:05
the earlier part of the sentence.
- 01:06
Unfortunately, a measly little comma isn't enough to stop this run-on.
- 01:10
We can get rid of choice (C).
- 01:11
(D) tries using a semicolon, but this doesn't work either.
- 01:14
Semicolons are great when we want to connect two independent clauses, but they're totally
- 01:18
useless when we're trying to introduce a list.
- 01:19
The answer is (B), which correctly uses a colon to prepare us for the list to come.
- 01:25
Besides introducing lists, colons are good at introducing quotes and explanations.
- 01:29
They're also good at introducing us when we're feeling awkward at a party...
Related Videos
ACT English: Punctuation Drill 2, Problem 2. Where should the semi-colon be placed?
ACT English: Punctuation Drill 3, Problem 1. How should this sentence be changed so that it is grammatically correct?
ACT English: Punctuation Drill 3, Problem 2. How should we properly hyphenate the words in this sentence?
ACT English: Punctuation Drill 3, Problem 4. Which choice best formats this list of items?
ACT English: Punctuation Drill 2, Problem 1. Which choice of punctuation best completes the sentence?