A punctuation question with the same transition in every choice tests where the word belongs and which marks it needs. Read across the blank, including printed punctuation, then cover the transition and check each side. Find the complete sentences: a semicolon joins two, while a dash marks a sudden break or sets off extra words. Commas set off a transition; without punctuation, it must fit directly into the sentence. Use the transition's meaning to decide which sentence it belongs to.
Hints
- Hint 1
Look at the punctuation already printed before the blank. What has it already separated?
- Hint 2
Cover however and test both sides as sentences. Find the main subject and verb in the audit's finding and in the board's vote.
- Hint 3
Decide which sentence however belongs to. Use the meaning of the board's vote and the printed semicolon, then ask how to set off the transition there.
Step-by-step
Cover, split, and place the transition
Step 1Find the complete sentences
Cover however and read the words on either side of the printed semicolon; we're checking how to punctuate a transition, a word that links the meanings of two ideas. Can each side stand alone? The final audit demonstrated tells us that the protocols reduced accidents by nearly 25 percent. On the other side, the board voted to delay full implementation has its own subject, board, and main verb, voted. It also tells us how long the board plans to wait. Both sides are complete sentences.
- Step 2
Place the contrast
How does the board's vote relate to the audit's finding? However means despite that, so it introduces something that goes against what came before. Here, the board voted to delay full implementation until the next fiscal quarter is unexpected after the drop in accidents. We don't need to guess why the board waited; the text gives us the contrast between a safety benefit and a delay. However introduces the board's vote, after the printed semicolon.
- Step 3
Set off the opening transition
After a semicolon, an opening transition takes a comma after it, separating it from the board voted. The bare however leaves that comma out. The version with another semicolon cuts off however as if it could stand alone, and the version with a dash uses the wrong mark to set off an opening transition. We need however, to introduce the board's vote without breaking that sentence. Choice D.