A punctuation question about extra information tests how a description fits into a sentence. Read around the blank to find where the description starts and ends, then cross it out to check what remains. Check what each mark needs: commas or dashes can surround extra information in matching pairs. A colon follows a complete sentence and introduces details; a semicolon joins two complete sentences. Use the sentence's structure, not the length of a pause, to decide.
Hints
- Hint 1
Look at where the document description ends. Which words after it tell you when Paula plans to review the report?
- Hint 2
Cross out the document description and see whether the sentence still works. Then look at the mark already there at the description's far end.
Step-by-step
Cross out and match
Step 1Find where the description ends
After the blank, a comprehensive document outlining the team's progress and goals describes the quarterly report, so let's find where that description starts and ends. Where does the sentence pick up again? The words before the Friday meeting tell when Paula will review the report, so the description ends at goals.
- Step 2
Test the sentence without it
Can we remove that description and still have a complete sentence? We get: Paula wrote in an email to her colleagues that she plans to review the quarterly report before the Friday meeting. The sentence still says what Paula wrote and when she'll review the report, so the description is an insert, extra information we can leave out.
- Step 3
Match the closing mark
The comma in goals, before the Friday meeting closes the insert. An insert inside a sentence needs matching marks, so the blank needs an opening comma after report. The version report, gives us that comma. Choice C.