ShmoopTube

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Here’s your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by hygiene. The good, the bad, and the smelly.

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Check out the following passage and answer the question below.

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How would you correct the following underlined portion from the passage? Does it need correcting?

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"When it comes to the cat, anyway" is a clause that modifies "anti-bath;"

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it lets the reader know that the writer appreciates good hygiene, even though he or she avoids washing the cat.

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This is probably an important thing for the author to clarify on a personal level--

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especially if he or she is on the dating scene.

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Even if it’s an important side-note for the author, the clause is what’s known as

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“nonessential,” meaning that it doesn’t affect the core meaning of the sentence.

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The main point is to let the reader know the reason why the author avoids bathing the cat,

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not to inform the reader about the writer’s bathing routines.

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If we’re ever unsure about whether a clause is essential or nonessential,

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we like to omit the clause and read the sentence out loud.

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Check it: “But the most important reason why our household is strictly anti-bath

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is because he hates taking one.” Totally works, right? Nothing super important has been lost.

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Knowing that the clause is nonessential helps us to do some eliminating.

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For example, we can get rid of choice (A) because it doesn’t separate the clause from the earlier part

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of the sentence with any sort of punctuation. Marking nonessential elements this way helps

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the reader to understand what’s most important in a sentence. Sorry, nonessential elements,

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we know it’s not nice to single people out, but in this case it’s necessary.

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Choice (C) is easy to cross out because it breaks up our clause all weirdly.

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“Anyway” is essential to this nonessential clause.

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So completely separating it with a period makes zero sense and is probably traumatic for everyone involved.

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Choice (B) isn’t...you know...wrong wrong. It correctly separates the clause from the

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rest of the sentence with commas, which is the most typical method of punctuating nonessential elements.

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It also correctly places a comma before “anyway.”

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The trouble is that the sentence now looks majorly overcrowded with commas.

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Let’s hope there’s a better option on the table.

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Yeah, choice (D) is the best answer.

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It’s also OK to separate nonessential elements with parentheses.

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This works great here because it gets the job done without turning the sentence

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into Comma-thon 2014.

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We went to Comma-thon 2013, and believe us, it’s way over-rated.

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