ShmoopTube

Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.

Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos

ACT English 4.4 Passage Drill 190 Views


Share It!


Description:

ACT English: Passage Drill Drill 4, Problem 4. Where should the commas be placed in the underlined portion of this sentence?

Language:
English Language

Transcript

00:03

Here’s your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by unsung genius, Makoto Hagiwara.

00:09

Sign our petition to make his birthday a national holiday.

00:35

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

00:39

man, named Makoto Hagiwara, in 1914, in San Francisco.?

00:44

And here are the potential answers...

00:49

Once again, we’re being asked to determine what’s essential and what’s

00:52

nonessential in a sentence.

00:54

The rule of thumb is that nonessential elements should be set apart by commas...

00:58

While essential elements should let it fly with no punctuation at all.

01:02

Choice (A) is definitely wrong.

01:04

It goes so crazy with the commas that it’s hard to tell what the writer thinks is essential

01:08

or nonessential. Option (B), on the other hand, sets the phrase

01:11

“named Makoto Hagiwara in 1914” apart with commas.

01:17

There’s no way this is correct because the main point of this sentence is to tell us

01:21

Makoto’s name.

01:23

The year in which he invented fortune cookies also seems probably pretty important.

01:27

We find a similar mistake in choice (C), which only sets the name “Makoto Hagiwara” apart.

01:32

Again, this guy’s name is totally essential to the sentence.

01:34

Man, why is everybody hatin’ on Makoto? That does it; we’re officially starting

01:38

the Makoto Hagiwara fan club.

01:42

The best answer is (D). The correct response is to place no punctuation in this sentence.

01:47

All of the elements of the clause that begins with "Japanese man named…" are essential—

01:52

we need to know the name, the year, and the place. Therefore, they should not be set off from

01:57

the body of the sentence by commas.

01:59

We believe fortune cookie history is essential knowledge for all Americans

02:03

and should be taught in every school across the land.

Up Next

ACT English 2.2 Punctuation
2070 Views

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

Related Videos

ACT English 3.1 Punctuation
1066 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
973 Views

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

ACT English 3.4 Punctuation
523 Views

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

ACT English 2.1 Punctuation
519 Views

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