ShmoopTube

Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.

Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos

ACT English 5.4 Passage Drill 183 Views


Share It!


Description:

ACT English: Passage Drill 5, Problem 4. Which choice displays proper comma use in this sentence?

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:03

Here’s your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by several breeds of spiders.

00:08

You might want to check for egg sacks.

00:34

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

00:37

Many spiders particularly orb funnel sheet and cob-weaving spiders?

00:42

And here are the potential answers...

00:49

One of the many talents of the comma is separating items on a list.

00:54

Whenever we have a sentence that lists three or more items, it’s necessary to use commas

00:58

to separate those items. Otherwise, we end up with a big pile of indecipherable mush.

01:04

Here’s an example:

01:06

“Jose likes bacon, barbecue sauce, sardines, and ice cream on his pizza.”

01:09

(Don’t hate; Jose is a man of refined, yet idiosyncratic tastes.)

01:14

Did you notice how we placed a comma after each item on the list?

01:19

There were three or more, so it had to be done.

01:21

If we hadn’t, Jose’s various toppings would all mush together in the sentence.

01:25

And if these toppings mushed together, this pizza might get too experimental even for Jose.

01:30

We should point out that there is some debate about the comma that comes directly before “and.”

01:35

This comma is called the Oxford or serial comma, and some say it isn’t necessary since

01:41

the list is already established by the time we get to it.

01:45

However, grammarians are still bickering about this issue.

01:50

Since there’s no consensus, whichever way we feel like doing it is fine.

01:54

All right, let’s get back to the sentence at hand, which lists four different kinds

01:58

of spiders: orb, funnel, sheet, and cob-weaving.

02:02

Options (A), (B), and (C) make no attempt to separate the items on the list with commas.

02:07

Not only is this a bad idea because it’s grammatically incorrect, it’s also gross.

02:12

Who wants to think about that many kinds of spiders crawling all over each other?

02:17

The correct answer is (D), which is the only option that correctly places a comma after

02:22

each item on the list.

02:23

Commas now safely separate these spider breeds.

02:26

This is great for our peace of mind and also great for the spiders; being crowded together

02:31

was probably no fun for them either.

Up Next

ACT English 2.2 Punctuation
2058 Views

ACT English: Punctuation Drill 2, Problem 2. Where should the semi-colon be placed?

Related Videos

ACT English 3.1 Punctuation
1059 Views

ACT English: Punctuation Drill 3, Problem 1. How should this sentence be changed so that it is grammatically correct?

ACT English 3.2 Punctuation
962 Views

ACT English: Punctuation Drill 3, Problem 2. How should we properly hyphenate the words in this sentence?

ACT English 3.4 Punctuation
517 Views

ACT English: Punctuation Drill 3, Problem 4. Which choice best formats this list of items?

ACT English 2.1 Punctuation
509 Views

ACT English: Punctuation Drill 2, Problem 1. Which choice of punctuation best completes the sentence?