A punctuation question about extra information tests how you set off a description inside a sentence. Read on from the blank to see where the description ends and the main sentence picks up again. Then cross out the description and check that a full sentence remains. Extra information in the middle needs matching marks at both ends: two commas, two dashes, or opening and closing parentheses. A nearby mark may belong to a different part, so follow the whole description.
Hints
- Hint 1
In the second sentence, find what the pseudonym did for Germain. Which verb tells you that?
- Hint 2
Can you remove the words about masking Germain’s identity and still have a full sentence? If so, check the mark at the description’s far end.
Step-by-step
Cross out and match
Step 1Find the main verb
Read beyond the blank to allowed her to engage freely in scholarly debate. What did the alias do for Germain? It allowed her to debate freely, so allowed is the main verb, the verb that tells what the alias did. This alias is the subject, the thing the sentence is about, and chosen begins a description between it and allowed. We need to test whether that description is extra information.
- Step 2
Test the description
Can we cross out that description and still have a full sentence? The words to mask her identity in a male-dominated field give the reason the alias was chosen. Remove everything from chosen through field, and what remains is This alias allowed her to engage freely in scholarly debate. That sentence works, so the description is extra information that the sentence can do without. The description ends before allowed, where the main sentence picks up again.
- Step 3
Match the marks
The comma in field, allowed marks the description’s end, so what must open it? Extra information in the middle needs matching marks, which means a comma has to go after alias. The version with a parenthesis and the version with a dash don’t match that comma, while the version with no mark leaves it without an opening mark. The version alias, chosen adds the matching comma. Choice B.