Boundaries

The question reads: “Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?” Grammar questions about verbs and pronouns use the same wording, so look at the choices. On a punctuation question they keep the same words in order and change only the marks, as in shore, divers and shore; divers. A word after a period gets a capital, and a choice may add a small word such as “and” or “which.”

If the choices change a verbA word for what something does or is, such as carry or seem. form, a pronounA word like “it” or “they” that stands in for a noun., or an apostropheThe mark in “don’t” and “the crew’s log,” which stands for missing letters or shows ownership.Read the lesson instead, read Form, Structure, and Sense.

Although the old pier looked solid from the shore ______ divers found that most of its posts had rotted.

• A. shore. Divers
• B. shore; divers
• C. shore, divers
• D. shore divers

1. Look back toward the start of the sentence. If a comma, dash, or parenthesis opened some extra words, the blank may close them with the same mark. Nothing opens here.
2. Read the words before the blank as if the sentence stopped there: “Although the old pier looked solid from the shore.” It has a subjectThe who or what a sentence is about. In “The vault held papers,” it’s the vault. and a verb, but “Although” leaves you waiting for the rest.
3. Read the words after the blank as if a new sentence started there: “Divers found that most of its posts had rotted.” That could stand alone.
4. Match what you found:
   • If both sides could, use a period or a semicolonThe mark ; which joins two complete sentences., or a comma plus “and,” “but,” or “so.” A comma alone is wrong, and so is no mark.
   • If the left side could and the right side explains or lists, use a colonThe mark : which follows a complete sentence and introduces what comes next. or one dash.
   • If the left side could and the right side is extra words that describe or comment on it, use a comma, as in “The town built a stone pier, which still stands.”
   • If the left side is only opening words, use a comma.
   • If the blank splits words that belong together, such as a subject and its verb, use no mark.
   • If the blank sits between list items that already contain commas, use a semicolon, as in “Reno, Nevada; Salem, Oregon; and Boise, Idaho.” A colon won’t work.

The left side is only opening words, so the answer is C. A and B put a period or a semicolon after words that can’t stand alone. D has no mark, so “shore divers” reads at first like one group of people.

Words like “because” and “when” can also come after the full sentence, and then they usually take no comma: “The town closed the pier because its posts had rotted.” A contrast is the exception. “Although,” “though,” “whereas,” and “while” meaning “whereas” take a comma even at the end: “Divers found rotted posts, although the pier looked solid from the shore.”

The mark that opened some extra words can sit well before the blank, so look back first.

Crossing out the extra words also shows whether a side can stand alone. Take them out of “The crew, which had spent weeks preparing for the survey, was mapping the riverbed,” and you’re left with “The crew was mapping the riverbed.”

A side of the blank can stand alone when it has a subject and a verb with a time on it, such as “rotted,” “is,” or “was mapping.”

An “-ing” word can still start a full sentence as its subject. In “The system vents air through side openings ______ repositioning these openings reduces noise,” the verb “reduces” goes with “repositioning these openings.” The words after the blank could stand alone, so a comma alone is wrong.

Some words leave you waiting for the rest even when a side has a subject and a verb. Call them waiting words: “because,” “although,” “when,” “if,” “which,” “that,” and others like them. Read every word a choice adds, since one of these can stop a side from standing alone.

Sentence boundaries and run-ons has more on what can stand alone.

Between two full sentences, use a period, a semicolon, or a comma plus a joining word such as “and.” A colon or one dash works too when the second sentence explains the first: “The town closed the pier: its posts had rotted.”

A period and a semicolon do the same job here, so if two choices differ only in that, neither can be the answer. If two choices both look right this way, check them again for a second difference, such as a stray comma.

“However,” “therefore,” “consequently,” “moreover,” “nevertheless,” and “instead” link ideas, but they can’t join two full sentences the way “and” or “but” can.

Sometimes the choices also move “however” from one sentence to the other. Sentence boundaries and run-ons shows how to tell which one it goes with.

A colon can’t come right after “such as” or “including,” because the left side has to stand alone. “The crew replaced parts such as: posts and beams” is wrong.

Semicolons, colons, and dashes has more on colons and dashes.

A sentence that asks the question puts a verb before the subject and ends with a question mark: “Why had the ferry schedule changed?”

Test the choice with no mark like any other. No matter how long the sentence is, words that belong together take no mark between them.

No mark goes between a role and the name that says which person, as in “cabinetmaker Teodora Nunez.” The same is true before “that” when the words after it say which ones: “only the samples that contained quartz.”

Commas has more on when no comma belongs.

Before you pick an answer, say which part of the test chose it, such as “the left side is only opening words.” If all you can say is that it sounds right, run the test again.

When you miss one, the choice you picked tells you which lesson to read next.

Work the three examples with the test, then try five more. Their explanations call a full sentence an independent clauseA clause that could stand on its own as a sentence. “The road reopened” is one.Read the lesson.