ShmoopTube

Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.

Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos

See All

ACT English 4.3 Punctuation 518 Views

Share It!

Description:

ACT English: Punctuation Drill 4, Problem 3. How could dashes be correctly inserted into the sentence, if at all?

Language:

English Language

Subjects:

Tags:

Common Core Standards:

Transcript

00:04
Here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by the dash. Sorry if it's a little winded—it
00:08
sprinted the whole way here.
00:10
How should you change the below sentence to make it correct, if at all?
00:14
Perhaps one reason why the term has been so problematic, so resistant to definition, and
00:19
yet so transitory in those definitions, is because of its multitude of applications.

00:34
Dashes can be used in place of commas to set a certain phrase—often a modifier—apart for emphasis.
00:42
(B) is incorrect because the modifiers of "so problematic" and "so resistant to definition"
00:47
need to be separated with a comma.
00:50
(C) is incorrect because "and yet" isn't crucial enough to be emphasized with dashes.
00:55
This leaves us with choices (A) and (D).
00:58
But (D) still wins the day, because the use of dashes really helps to clarify the meaning of the sentence.
00:58
But (D) still wins the day, because the use of dashes really helps to clarify the meaning
01:03
The modifier "so resistant to definition, and yet so transitory in those definitions"
01:08
helps explain why the term is so problematic.
Full Transcript