Why this matters on the SAT
Sometimes the right answer on the SAT is no punctuation at all. One choice leaves the mark out, and the others put a comma, a semicolon, a colon or a dash between two parts of the same sentence, such as a subject and its verb. To choose, ask one thing: do the words on each side of the blank belong together? If they do, nothing goes between them. These questions make up about one in fourteen grammar questions, and their usual trap is a comma where you'd pause.
Solution to the example
Name the parts on each side of the blank. The main verb is is, and what is to keep the galleries open is The museum’s primary goal during the renovation, its subject. Nothing goes between a subject and its verb. The answer is D. A tempts most, because a pause before is feels natural after a seven-word subject, but a comma can't split a subject from its verb. A colon (B) and a semicolon (C) need a full sentence before them, and the subject alone isn't one.
SAT example
The museum’s primary goal during the _____ to keep as many galleries open as possible.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
renovation, is
renovation: is
renovation; is
renovation is
No mark goes between a subject and its verb, however long the subject gets. In the examples, the spot the choices would test is bold, with the word on each side.
A long subject makes you want to pause before the verb, and a pause feels like a comma. But the SAT doesn't punctuate by pauses. To find the subject, find the main verb and ask what or who does it. What starts in June? The new schedule for the harbor ferries. All of that is the subject. To check, shrink the whole subject to it or they: nobody would write It, starts in June, and the long version takes no comma either.
Only a matching pair around extra information can come between a subject and its verb, or a verb or preposition and its object. Cross the pair out, as lesson 3 did, and the two parts meet with nothing between them. The crossed-out words are what the test removes.
Lesson 2 showed that a that clause can be a subject. A whether or what clause can be one too, and like a that clause, it can't stand alone unless a main verb follows it. These subjects hold verbs of their own, so read on for the sentence's main verb and ask what: the whole answer is the subject, and no mark goes before the main verb.
Ran belongs to the that clause; the main verb is surprised. What surprised the crew? That the ferry ran on time all winter.
Comma or no comma at the blank? Everything the volunteers collected at the beach cleanup ______ went to a recycling center.
Try it on this question: read on for the main verb, ask what does it, and shrink that whole subject to it.
Practice problem
Administrative accounts indicate that some Athenian decrees were painted on wooden panels rather than carved in stone. Whether those panels, which could be updated more easily than stone inscriptions, served as temporary notices or as records intended for repeated _____ uncertain because the accounts do not specify how long the panels remained on display.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
No mark goes between a verb and its object, or between a preposition and its object, even when the object is a list. A verb's object is what it acts on: sells what? A preposition, a word like of, in, with or during, needs an object the same way: with what?
A list makes a colon tempting, since colons often come before lists. But a colon has to follow a full sentence, and The bakery sells isn't one: sells what? A single dash before a list follows the same rule; a pair of dashes around a list is extra information, as lesson 3 showed. Lesson 6 covers the colons that do work before a list.
Such as and including work like prepositions: the examples after them are their object, so no colon goes after them either.
Colon or no mark at the blank? The harbor shop sells souvenirs such as ______ tide charts, model ferries, and old postcards.
In this question, find the object of of, and ask whether anything can come between them, even when the object is a list.
Practice problem
In a workshop on memoir writing, the instructor asked students to consider the role _____ humor, sensory detail, and honest self-critique in shaping a personal narrative.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
The same test works inside a noun phrase. A noun belongs with a phrase right after it that says what kind, and with a describing word right before it. No mark goes between them.
Of rye says what kind of loaves, and 2,000-acre describes the farm, so each stays with its noun.
A that clause, a group of words that opens with that and has a verb of its own, often finishes the word before it. It can say which one (the trail that floods) or what (warned that the trail floods, sure that it would flood). Either way, no comma goes between a word and its that clause. A colon is different: after a full sentence, it can introduce a that clause that explains a word like conclusion (she reached a surprising conclusion: that the errors were deliberate). Colons get their own lesson.
That can look like which. Lesson 4 showed that a clause that opens with which takes a comma, while a that clause that says which one takes none. A that clause that says what works the same way: it finishes the word before it, so it stays attached. That holds even when the words before that could stand alone, as The rangers were sure can.
A period or a semicolon before that is a bigger error. It cuts the clause off as a sentence of its own, and a that clause can stand alone only when a main verb follows it, as lesson 2 showed. Here none does, so it's a fragment.
Comma, period or no mark at the blank? The ferry crew was relieved ______ that the storm had passed to the north.
Try it on this question: find the word the that clause finishes, and keep the clause attached to it.
Practice problem
A travel website listed a train route as “direct.” Some customers were ______ the itinerary showed a required transfer in another city.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
Lesson 2 promised that a part after a full sentence takes a comma or no mark, depending on what it adds. Extra information takes a comma, as lesson 3 showed. A part that finishes what the sentence says takes no mark, as a that clause does, and a when part can be one. A part that ends a sentence and says when, or under what conditions, the action happens takes no comma. It usually starts with when, whenever or while.
Cross the when part out, and the sentence says the comet is always visible, a different claim. So the when part belongs to what the sentence says, and it stays attached. A period or a semicolon is worse: when makes the part lean, so on its own it's a fragment. While scanning the western sky works the same way: it says when the students spotted the comet.
While follows this rule only when it means during the time that. When it means whereas and sets up a contrast, it adds a point of its own, and a comma goes before it: The comet is bright, while the stars around it are faint.
One exception: right after a specific time, such as a year, a date or a named period like the 1920s, the when part takes a comma. The time already says when, so the when part only adds to it, the way extra information does. That's why lesson 2's ferry sentence keeps its comma:
So look at the words right before when. If they name a specific time, the comma goes in. If not, the when part sets the time or the condition, and no mark goes before it.
In this question, look at the words right before when, then ask whether the when part sets the time or the condition.
Practice problem
Art conservators sometimes find hidden preliminary sketches beneath a painting’s visible layers using infrared photography. In many cases, the underdrawing becomes _____ the canvas is illuminated with infrared light.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
Here's the move that makes these questions fast. Many choices put a heavy mark at the blank: a period, a semicolon or a colon. Each one needs a full sentence in a set place, so you can test it in seconds.
| Heavy mark | What it needs |
|---|---|
| a period or a semicolon | a full sentence on each side (outside a list) |
| a colon | a full sentence before it |
In these questions, one side of the blank is almost always only part of a sentence: a subject without its verb, a verb without its object, a that or when part with nothing to lean on. So the heavy marks usually fail their test. If a period and a semicolon both appear, they do the same job and cancel out anyway, as lesson 2 showed. What's left is a comma or no mark, and the two parts at the blank decide.
That makes one routine for every question in this lesson, the one the worked example and the practice problems follow:
In this question, the subject is a whole that clause, twenty-six words long, and the blank sits right where it ends.
Worked example
That an apparently continuous contour in a pen-and-ink illustration may consist of dozens of short strokes laid edge to edge rather than a single uninterrupted ______ is difficult to detect in a printed reproduction but becomes obvious when the original drawing is examined under magnification.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
sweep,
sweep
sweep;
sweep:
Step 1
The choices differ only in the mark after sweep. Start with the heavy marks. The words before the blank open with That, and their verb, may consist, belongs to the that clause. A that clause can stand alone only when a main verb follows it, and none does before the blank. So the words before the blank aren't a full sentence. That rules out C, because a semicolon needs a full sentence on each side, and D, because a colon needs one before it.
Step 2
Read past the blank, and the sentence's main verb arrives: is, in is difficult to detect. What is difficult to detect? That an apparently continuous contour … may consist of dozens of short strokes … rather than a single uninterrupted sweep. The whole that clause is the subject, so the blank sits between the subject and its verb.
Step 3
Here's the trap. After twenty-six words, and a contrast that ends on sweep, a pause before is feels natural, so A's comma tempts most. But the SAT doesn't punctuate by pauses, and no mark goes between a subject and its verb, so A is out. Shrink the subject to it, and nothing belongs before the verb. The answer is B.
These questions mix the cases, so on each one, run the routine: test the heavy marks, then name the two parts that meet at the blank.
Practice problem
During the 1860s, as rail lines pushed westward from the Mississippi River, new towns sprang up where tracks met rivers and mountain passes. Researchers have ______ maps, census tallies, freight schedules, and local letters to trace these towns’ early growth.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
Practice problem
In contemporary publishing, the label “climate fiction” is often shortened to cli-fi. The term cli-fi describes _____ novels that imagine how communities might respond to rising seas and shifting weather patterns, blending speculative plots with familiar realist details.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
Practice problem
To reconstruct the route of an eighteenth-century trading expedition, historian Amara Okafor compares shipboard journals with customs ledgers and other contemporary sources. Because journal entries can contain errors, she gives more weight to claims supported by independently created documents. The details in eyewitness _____ are generally treated as stronger evidence than details that appear in only one account.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
Practice problem
While digitizing the notebooks of Antarctic meteorologist Elsie Clark, archivists noticed that her fieldwork yielded records ______ describing abrupt barometric swings, coded telegram drafts to the ship’s captain, and sketches of instruments fashioned from spare rigging.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
Finish the lesson
Finish the remaining questions correctly to complete this lesson.
Next lesson
Put a colon after a full sentence, and punctuate a list.
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