Punctuation | Worked example

0:04- [Instructor] Hello, test takers, here's a question from the reading and writing test. If you'd like to give it a go on your own first, take a moment to pause this video now. All right, moment concluded, let's do it together. The island nation of Barbados is colloquially referred to as Bim by its residents, many of whom are descendants of enslaved Africans taken to the island during the 18th century.

0:28Though the origins of the nickname aren't entirely blank, Bim is thought to be derived from the Igbo phrase, bi mu, which means my home or my people. Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of standard English? We're looking to conform the conventions of standard English which is another way of saying that the answer will be the choice that is grammatically correct, but which grammar convention is being tested here?

0:53The choices will tell us. So our choices vary only in how they are punctuated or in the case of choice a, not punctuated at all, which tells me that we're working with a boundaries question. Boundaries questions all about the linkages between phrases and clauses.

1:09Should we use a comma, a semicolon, a period? Do we need to include a coordinating conjunction like and or but? Boundaries questions may vary in their focus but there are a few rules that will help us answer any boundaries question we see on test day. With this particular example question, we're going to look at the rules around different types of punctuation marks.

1:30So, a refresher, what's a punctuation mark? And what do they do for a living? The essay team test your knowledge of commas, semicolons, colons, and dashes. There's also end of sentence punctuation but I'm not gonna go over periods, question marks, and explanation points here, because I wanna talk about the marks that bind a sentence together, not the ones that result in separate sentences.

1:53Let's go through each in turn. Here's what commas can do; they can separate items in a list such as I'll need chili flakes, shrimp, and lime juice to make this dish, they can separate non-essential elements from the rest of a sentence, their aunt, the famous cellist, is visiting from Columbia.

2:11They can link dependent clauses to independent clauses, although they may appear very cute, slow lorises should not be kept as pets, and they can link independent clauses to one another with the coordinating conjunction. The Canadian power pop band Sloan was nominated for nine Juno Awards, but they only won one.

2:32But a single comma cannot do the following things; commas can't split a subject and its verb, so the following is incorrect. Mountain goats, are very nimble. Commas can't come before prepositions, as in Howard gave a vase, to me, and commas can't punctuate a two-item list, you need at least three items, so this is ungrammatical, I need eggs, and milk.

2:57Using commas in any of these ways is ungrammatical in standard English, each will result in an error. Let's move on to semicolons and colons. Semicolons can do two things. They can link independent clauses without a conjunction as in mangoes are the national fruit of the Philippines; in Serbia, the national fruit is the plum.

3:17And they can separate list items in a complex list, a list that is already punctuated by commas as in the business was wide ranging, with outposts in Versailles, France, Beirut, Lebanon, and Lawrence, Kansas. Colons can only follow independent clauses, their function is to introduce things.

3:34Colons can introduce explanations and extra info. Mr. Gold Schmidt is best known for his mastery of one fabric: denim, or they can introduce lists. Josephine Baker was many things: an activist, a performer, and a spy for the French resistance. And finally, a set of paired dashes can set off non essential information as in these records -- Giant Steps, A Love Supreme, and Ascension -- cemented John Coltrane's place in the firmament of jazz.

4:05And a single dash needs to follow an independent clause behaving kind of like a colon as in the final speech was delivered by the least popular person in town - the mayor. Okay, this concludes the refresher. I hope you feel a little recharged, a little zestful, let's move on and address the strategy I like for approaching boundaries questions that focus on punctuation.

4:26First, check before and after the blank to identify the clauses. Are we dealing with two independent clauses here or is one of them dependent? Then, eliminate choices that result in errors like run on sentences or comma splices. While multiple punctuation marks could work in some situations, you'll never be offered more than one choice on the SAT that doesn't introduce an identifiable error.

4:50Then, identify the answer, because whatever doesn't result in an error is the correct choice. Let's go back to the question. I've already read our passage, so let's just do our strategy and look at either side of the blank to evaluate the clauses. We're looking to see if they could stand on their own as sentences, which means they won't start with subordinating conjunctions like although, despite, or when.

5:11And hey, look at that, this bit starts with though, though the origins of the nickname aren't entirely clear, so that makes me think that though the origins of the nickname aren't entirely clear is a dependent clause and that tells us a lot of things, that tells us the answer cannot be C, right, that's a semicolon, it can only link two independent clauses, it can't be D, a colon can only come after an independent clause, so what's on the other side of the blank?

5:39Okay, Bim is thought to be derived, okay, so subject, Bim, verb is, right, you boil down the second bit and it's just Bim is thought to be derived from Igbo so we've got a dependent clause and an independent clause, they can't just be stuck together without punctuation that would be a run on sentence and that's no good.

6:01So that knocks out choice A, right, 'cause there's no punctuation there. And since we can't do a semicolon and we can't do a colon, that leaves us with choice B, the comma choice, that's our answer. Let's review some top tips really quick. Test what comes right before and right after the punctuation to see if and where an independent clause appears and then apply the rules.

6:23The key to these questions is understanding how many clauses you're dealing with and how many of them are independent clauses? All of your punctuation decisions will flow from there. All right, good luck out there, you've got this.