ShmoopTube

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Here’s your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by catching spirals.

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It’s kind of an abstract hobby, but many still enjoy it.

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How would you correct this underlined segment from the passage, if at all?

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This anyway?

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And here are the potential answers...

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The sentence before the underlined portion tells us...

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“Many believe that spiders have special oils that repel the stickiness of their threads.”

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But the sentence in which the underlined portion appears tells us that...

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“this has never been proven.”

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Looks like we have a contrast here.

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So whatever word we choose for the underlined segment needs to establish this contrast.

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Option (D) suggests the word “despite,” which does communicate contrast.

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Unfortunately, though, this choice is grammatically incorrect.

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“Despite” is a preposition, and prepositions should almost always be followed by nouns.

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In this sentence, however, it’s followed by the helping verb “has” instead.

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The gods of grammar would strike us with lightning if we let this one fly.

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We’re putting choice (D) out of its misery. So bye.

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The remaining three choices--anyway, however, and besides--are all what’s known as conjunctive adverbs.

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These are adverbs whose job it is to create smooth transitions from one clause to another.

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Each of these conjunctive adverbs can be used to establish some kind of contrast,

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so choosing the right one might be tough.

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Out of the three, we’re going with choice (B) because the word “however” establishes

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the strongest contrast.

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Also, (B) is the only option that’s punctuated correctly. When a conjunctive adverb interrupts

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a sentence, it’s necessary for it to be surrounded by commas.

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Free wheelin’ conjunctive adverbs are a cardinal sin in spider writing.

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