ShmoopTube

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Here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by the Exocarp: the X-man whose mutant power

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is exuding the fishy smell of carp.

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

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layers the

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And here are the potential answers:

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Our sensors are detecting one nasty run-on sentence.

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Without the proper punctuation, this sentence is a monstrous mush of words that's close

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to incomprehensible.

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Our original sentence ends with a list, which describes the three layers of the coconut.

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Without the proper punctuation to introduce this list, we've got a serious case of run-on pandemonium.

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Therefore, we can nix choice (A), since it doesn't use any punctuation whatsoever.

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Choice (C) makes an effort at punctuating by sliding a comma in between the list and

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the earlier part of the sentence.

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Unfortunately, a measly little comma isn't enough to stop this run-on.

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We can get rid of choice (C).

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(D) tries using a semicolon, but this doesn't work either.

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Semicolons are great when we want to connect two independent clauses, but they're totally

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useless when we're trying to introduce a list.

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The answer is (B), which correctly uses a colon to prepare us for the list to come.

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Besides introducing lists, colons are good at introducing quotes and explanations.

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They're also good at introducing us when we're feeling awkward at a party...

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