ShmoopTube
Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.
Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos
Test Prep Videos 4004 videos
ACT English: Punctuation Drill 1, Problem 3. Is that comma being used correctly?
CAHSEE Math: Algebra and Functions Drill 5, Problem 3. Solve the equation.
CAHSEE ELA 1.1 Writing Strategies. Which of the following sentences, if placed before sentence 1, would be the most effective introductory sentence?
ACT English 1.3 Punctuation 55719 Views
Share It!
Description:
ACT English: Punctuation Drill 1, Problem 3. Is that comma being used correctly?
ACT English: Punctuation Drill 1, Problem 3. Is that comma being used correctly?
Transcript
- 00:03
Here's your shmoop du jour, brought to you by Wild Birds.
- 00:07
I have always wanted to go to the bird estuary, observing wild birds in their natural habitat
- 00:14
is a passion of mine.
- 00:27
First of all, this thing sounds like two sentences. When you use a comma to join two independent
- 00:32
clauses, or sentence pieces... it's called a comma splice.
Full Transcript
- 00:36
So, let's if we can find another answer with a better way to combine these two clauses.
- 00:41
What about B? This time, the two sentences are joined with the word and.
- 00:45
And is a conjunction, and their buddy is the comma,
- 00:48
and they're pretty much inseparable
- 00:50
when they join independent clauses.
- 00:52
For the sentence to be grammatically correct,
- 00:54
it needs a comma. But beyond that, it doesn't really make
- 00:57
sense to use "and" here. Let's see if we can find a more natural conjunction in another
- 01:02
sentence. C... no way, no how. There's no conjunction...
- 01:06
D looks much more promising. It uses "because" as a subordinating conjunction.
- 01:11
Notice "because" works better than and, because the second clause explains the first
- 01:16
one pretty well. So the answer is D.
- 01:18
And hey, if you get it wrong, you can always try bribing the ACT test administrators with
- 01:24
tickets to that bird estuary...
Related Videos
ACT English: Punctuation Drill 2, Problem 3. Where does the semicolon fit best?
ACT English: Punctuation Drill 2, Problem 2. Where should the semi-colon be placed?
ACT English: Punctuation Drill 3, Problem 1. How should this sentence be changed so that it is grammatically correct?
ACT English: Punctuation Drill 3, Problem 2. How should we properly hyphenate the words in this sentence?
ACT English: Punctuation Drill 3, Problem 4. Which choice best formats this list of items?