Monday, February 8, 2010

English Trivia Question 5

Read this sentence and determine what, if anything, needs to be changed:
This is going to be the most difficult exam of your college career, you had better start studying for it now.

a. There is nothing wrong with this sentence
b. Fragment: put a comma after now and finish the sentence
c. Run-on: replace that comma with a semicolon
d. Run-on: put a comma after exam

The answer is C, it's a run-on sentence!

This sentence includes two complete closely-related independent clauses not conjoined with a coordinating conjunction (remember School House Rock for work with conjuctions: "Conjunction junction what's your function?"). Replacing the comma with a semicolon is the best given solution to this problematic sentence. Another solution would be to add a coordinating conjunction: "This is going to be the most difficult exam of your college career, so you had better start studying for it now."

Stay curious,
Team ARC

No comments:

Post a Comment