A punctuation question with extra information tests whether you can find where that information starts and ends. Read around the blank to see what the nearby marks do and where the main sentence continues. Cross out the extra information to check that a complete sentence remains. Extra information in the middle needs matching marks at both ends, whether they're commas, dashes, or parentheses. A nearby mark may finish a different phrase, so check which words each mark separates.
Hints
- Hint 1
Look at the first comma in the sentence. Does it begin extra information, or finish the phrase that comes before the group's name?
- Hint 2
Which word after the blank tells you what the group does? Use that verb to find where the cohort description ends.
- Hint 3
After crossing out the description, check the mark at its far end. What does that tell you about the punctuation needed at its start?
Step-by-step
Find the insert and match its marks
Step 1Check the first comma
Start at Within the discipline of anthropology,, because an earlier comma might affect the punctuation we're choosing at the blank. Does this comma begin extra information that runs to the blank? No: it ends the opening phrase naming the field of study. The group's name comes next, so let's read ahead to see what follows it.
- Step 2
Find where the description ends
Read ahead to cohort established in 2010—focuses. Which word tells us what the group does? Focuses is the group's main verb, while established describes when the cohort began. We could expand that description to a cohort that was established in 2010, so established isn't a second main verb. The description ends right before focuses.
- Step 3
Test the description
Cross out the description built around cohort established in 2010. Does the sentence still work? Yes: it now says that the Kinship Studies Group focuses on integrating genetic data with traditional ethnography, so the description is an insert, extra information we can remove. The version with a colon and the version with a semicolon need a complete sentence before their mark, but the group's main verb comes after the blank.
- Step 4
Match the opening mark
The dash in 2010—focuses sits at the description's end. Which opening mark can go with it? Extra information in the middle of a sentence needs matching marks, so this insert must open with a dash after Group. Group—a adds that opening dash before the cohort description. Choice C.