A punctuation question with a title and year tests how you set off extra information inside a sentence. Read across the blank to find the subject and its main verb, then cross out the added detail. Check what each mark needs: commas and dashes pair with matching marks around extra information. A semicolon needs complete sentences on both sides, while a colon needs a complete sentence before it. Marks inside extra information don't close the whole insert.
Hints
- Hint 1
In the second sentence, find the verb that tells what the sequel does. Where do the title and year sit in relation to that verb?
- Hint 2
Mentally remove the whole title and year, not only the year. Check the punctuation at the two edges of the removed detail.
Step-by-step
Find the insert and match its marks
Step 1Find the extra information
The comma in Its sequel, follows the subject, while continues Tambu's story tells us what the sequel does. Do the title and year need to stay for the sentence to work? Cross them out, and the sentence still says that the sequel continues Tambu's story. They form an insert, extra information the sentence can do without, so we're looking for its opening and closing marks.
- Step 2
Separate the inner and outer inserts
Does the closing parenthesis after the year finish the whole insert? It closes only the year, a smaller insert inside the larger one giving the book's title and date. The larger insert is still open, because its opening mark is the comma in Its sequel,. It needs to finish where the main sentence picks up again, right before continues Tambu's story.
- Step 3
Test whether the first part is complete
Can the words through the title and year stand alone? They name the sequel but don't yet say what it does; its main verb comes in continues Tambu's story. A semicolon needs complete sentences on both sides, and a colon needs one before it. Neither the semicolon nor the colon can separate this subject from its verb.
- Step 4
Match the outer marks
In the middle of a sentence, an insert must open and close with matching marks. The comma in Its sequel, needs its partner before continues Tambu's story. The version ending in a dash would mix the marks, while The Book of Not (2006), closes the outer insert with a comma after the year in parentheses. Choice D.