ShmoopTube

00:03

Here's your shmoop du jour, brought to you by Global Warming. Bringing the tropics to

00:08

you. Should save you a bundle on airfare. Rainfall amounts in the United States have

00:14

become a recent concern in fact; the concern for America's rainfall has led to an awareness

00:21

of global warming.

00:32

Global warming is a major bummer. But an equally major bummer is the blatant misuse of semicolons

00:37

and commas in this sentence. Here are the three places the semicolons are used.

00:42

By now we're awesome at dealing with sentences containing semicolons. There's nothing "semi"

00:47

about the sentence's individual parts.

00:49

They're full-fledged independent clauses or sentences, so for our purposes, you should

00:53

be able to read a full sentence on either side of them.

00:55

Let's check out the position of the semicolon suggested by choice D.

01:00

Before the semicolon, "Rainfall amounts in the United States" isn't a full sentence,

01:04

so this one doesn't work. Awkward. What about A? The first part of the

01:09

sentence would read: Rainfall amounts in the United States have become a recent concern

01:13

in fact. That makes about as much sense as "walrus

01:17

unicorn jelly rubber duckies." And that's saying something.

01:21

There's only one place left we could possibly put the comma. And it makes sense because

01:24

it takes out the "in fact" from the previous sentence.

01:27

Now the only difference between B and C is the comma.

01:30

Should a comma go after "in fact?" In fact, it should.

01:34

"In fact" is an introductory modifier at the beginning of that sentence.

01:38

The sentence works without it, but it makes more sense and flows better if you include

01:43

it. Speaking of flowing better, anyone up for

01:45

a canoe trip along the North Pole River?

Full Transcript