ShmoopTube

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Here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by the dash. Sorry if it's a little winded—it

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sprinted the whole way here.

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How should you change the below sentence to make it correct, if at all?

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Perhaps one reason why the term has been so problematic, so resistant to definition, and

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yet so transitory in those definitions, is because of its multitude of applications.

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Dashes can be used in place of commas to set a certain phrase—often a modifier—apart for emphasis.

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(B) is incorrect because the modifiers of "so problematic" and "so resistant to definition"

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need to be separated with a comma.

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(C) is incorrect because "and yet" isn't crucial enough to be emphasized with dashes.

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This leaves us with choices (A) and (D).

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But (D) still wins the day, because the use of dashes really helps to clarify the meaning of the sentence.

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But (D) still wins the day, because the use of dashes really helps to clarify the meaning

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The modifier "so resistant to definition, and yet so transitory in those definitions"

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helps explain why the term is so problematic.

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