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ACT English: Punctuation Drill 2, Problem 3. Where does the semicolon fit best?
ACT English: Punctuation Drill 3, Problem 4. Which choice best formats this list of items?
ACT English: Punctuation Drill 2, Problem 2. Where should the semi-colon be placed?
ACT English 2.4 Punctuation 467 Views
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ACT English: Punctuation Drill 2, Problem 4. Which punctuation fits best in this sentence?
Transcript
- 00:03
Here's your shmoop du jour, brought to you by Supermarkets. Where Superman buys his bread and milk.
- 00:10
Large supermarkets frighten me however; I
- 00:13
overcome my fear because I can find everything in one place.
- 00:26
First of all, who gets frightened by supermarkets? God forbid they should encounter a grizzly
- 00:31
bear or something ACTUALLY terrifying.
Full Transcript
- 00:33
Anyway, we know immediately that (A) and (B) have something funky going on. Let's read
- 00:37
some clauses from each one.
- 00:39
In A, the clause "Large supermarkets frighten me however" is not a complete sentence, and
- 00:45
in B, "because I can find everything in one place" is also not a complete sentence. So
- 00:50
we'll cross out these two. C seems reasonable. Well, as reasonable as
- 00:54
a sentence about being afraid of supermarkets can be.
- 00:56
Read the clause on each side of the semicolon. The first clause is a nice, full sentence.
- 01:01
The second clause, well it's pretty darn close, but turns out it's missing a comma.
- 01:06
However is a conjunction, which, when popping up at the beginning of a sentence, requires
- 01:11
a comma. Those darn commas...
- 01:13
D seems to have it all figured out. It's got that semicolon in the right place, and it
- 01:18
uses a comma after however. Boom. D it is. Oh no, we just received word that Lex Luthor
- 01:25
has taken a heat-ray to the freezer aisle. Man of Steel, you're our only hope...
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