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Usage and Mechanics Videos 116 videos

ELA Drills, Advanced: Punctuation 1
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ELA Drills, Advanced: Punctuation 1. Which option best completes the sentence?

ACT English 1.1 Grammar and Usage
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ACT English: Grammar and Usage Drill 1, Problem 1. What should replace the underlined word?

ACT English 1.2 Grammar and Usage
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ACT English: Grammar and Usage Drill 1, Problem 2. Does the underlined word match the subject and tense?

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ACT English 5.1 Passage Drill 190 Views


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Description:

ACT English: Passage Drill Drill 5, Problem 1. Which choice indicates proper comma use in the underlined segment?

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:04

Here’s your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by the class arachnida.

00:09

Guaranteed to cause more trouble than the class clown.

00:22

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

00:26

in the araneae order, of the class arachnida?

00:33

And here are the potential answers...

00:36

We’re gonna go out on a limb and say that commas are the most abused members of the punctuation family.

00:42

Everybody is guilty of comma abuse once in a while, but if we work together, we can put it to an end.

00:47

One incredibly useful rule of thumb is that commas are used to set apart nonessential

00:52

elements in a sentence.

00:54

If a sentence works just as well without a particular word, phrase, or clause, chances

00:58

are that element is nonessential.

01:00

In these cases, a comma is needed to step in and keep the nonessential element away

01:05

from the rest of the sentence.

01:08

So for this question, we have to take a good look at the underlined segment and analyze

01:12

whether any of this information is nonessential.

01:15

We’ll read it out loud to help:

01:17

“Spiders are invertebrate creatures in the araneae order of the class

01:22

arachnida in the phylum arthropoda.”

01:28

Secret confession: we only read that aloud because we like pronouncing Latin names.

01:32

Anyway, that all seems essential to us. The writer wants to tell us the order, class,

01:36

and phylum to which spiders belong. No piece of information is more important than another.

01:42

If we took anything away, the meaning of the sentence would change.

01:45

Since everything is essential, no commas are required in this sentence.

01:49

Knowing this allows us to swiftly eliminate options (A), (D), and (C),

01:53

which all include commas.

01:55

Sorry, guys, but the comma abuse has to stop somewhere.

01:58

The correct answer is (B), which uses no commas to separate any of this vital information.

02:03

All this info needs to be stuck together like insects in a spider’s web.

02:07

OK, that simile was a little grim.

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