Main content
SAT
Unit 11: Lesson 3
Writing: Grammar- Writing: Setting Up Ideas — Video Lesson
- Setting up ideas | Quick guide
- Writing: Strong Support — Video lesson
- Strong support | Quick guide
- Writing: Relevant Information — Video lesson
- Relevant information | Quick guide
- Writing: Sequencing sentences — Video lesson
- Sequencing sentences | Quick guide
- Writing: Transition Words — Video lesson
- Transition words and phrases | Quick guide
- Writing: Transition Sentences — Video Lesson
- Transition sentences | Quick guide
- Writing: Introductions — Video lesson
- Writing: Conclusions — Video lesson
- Introductions and conclusions | Quick guide
- Writing: Interpreting Graphs and Data — Video lesson
- Interpreting graphs and data | Quick guide
- Writing: Precision — Video Lesson
- Precise word choice | Quick guide
- Writing: Concision — Video lesson
- Concision | Quick guide
- Writing: Formal and Informal Language — Video Lesson
- Writing: Formal vs. casual language — Example
- Formal vs. casual language | Quick guide
- Writing: Syntax — Example
- Writing: Sentence Fragments — Video Lesson
- Writing: Sentence Boundaries — Example 1
- Writing: Sentence boundaries — Example 2
- Sentence fragments | Quick guide
- Writing: Subordination and coordination — Example
- Writing: Combining Sentences — Video Lesson
- Linking clauses | Quick guide
- Writing: Parallel Structure — Video lesson
- Writing: Parallel structure — Example
- Parallel structure | Quick guide
- Writing: Modifier Placement — Video Lesson
- Writing: Modifier placement — Example
- Modifier placement | Quick guide
- Writing: Verb Tense and Mood — Video Lesson
- Writing: Shift in verb tense and mood — Example
- Verb tense and mood | Quick guide
- Writing: Pronoun Clarity — Video Lesson
- Writing: Pronoun clarity — Example
- Pronoun clarity | Quick guide
- Writing: Pronoun Agreement — Video Lesson
- Writing: Pronoun-antecedent agreement — Example
- Pronoun-antecedent agreement | Quick guide
- Writing: Possessive determiners — Example 1
- Writing: Possessive determiners — Example 2
- Writing: It’s/Its Confusion — Video Lesson
- Confusion with "its" and "their" | Quick guide
- Writing: Subject-Verb Agreement — Video Lesson
- Writing: Subject-verb agreement — Example
- Subject-verb agreement | Quick guide
- Writing: Noun Agreement — Video Lesson
- Writing: Noun agreement — Basic example
- Noun agreement | Quick guide
- Writing: Frequently Confused Words — Video Lesson
- Writing: Frequently confused words — Example
- Frequently confused words | Quick guide
- Writing: Conventional Expressions — Video Lesson
- Writing: Conventional expression — Example
- Conventional expressions | Quick guide
- Writing: Logical Comparison — Video Lesson
- Writing: Logical comparison — Example
- Logical comparison | Quick guide
- Writing: End-of-sentence punctuation — Example 1
- Writing: End-of-sentence punctuation — Example 2
- Writing: Commas — Video Lesson
- Commas | Quick guide
- Writing: Semicolons — Video Lesson
- Semicolons | Quick guide
- Writing: Colons — Video lesson
- Colons | Quick guide
- Writing: Possessive Pronouns — Example
- Writing: Possessive Nouns — Video Lesson
- Making nouns possessive | Quick guide
- Writing: Items in a series — Example
- Writing: Punctuating Lists — Video Lesson
- Lists and punctuation | Quick guide
- Writing: Nonrestrictive and parenthetical elements — Example
- Writing: Nonessential Elements — Video Lesson
- Nonessential elements | Quick guide
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Writing: End-of-sentence punctuation — Example 2
Watch David work through an SAT Writing: End-of-sentence punctuation question.
Want to join the conversation?
- can a colon unite a dependent and an independent clause ?(2 votes)
- A colon simply tells the reader to stop and take note of whatever follows the colon. This can be done when it introduces a list or quotation, such as in "Usnavi loves to eat salad, ice cream, and cranberries, but not all at once." You can also use colons to introduce an important phrase, like "Usnavi wasn't the brightest, but he did know one thing: he had to get to school by 8." Actually, there are cases where the colon would be between two independent clauses, but this is always when the second clause describes or explains the first, in accordance with normal colon rules. Take "Usnavi sprinted like a madman to reach the bus stop: he was horribly late for work." On the SAT, though, bridging independent clauses is left to the semicolon. If the words on the other side of the colon make a dependent clause, then you could say that it unites an independent and dependent clause. That might be tested on the SAT, but I doubt it.(9 votes)
- Isn't their the subject as it is a pronoun and replaces Fresnel lenses.(2 votes)
- Their is not a subject. It can never be a subject unless you're treating it as a noun on its own. Their + Noun could be, though.(In this case "their concentric rings")(3 votes)
- At, if a comma splice is ungrammatical, how is option C the best choice and not option A? 3:00(0 votes)
- Read the question again, it says "Which of the following would NOT be acceptable".(22 votes)
- the second sentence more seems to be dependent on the first one how actually you determined it as independent clause please give me tip(2 votes)
- independent clauses can be sentences on their own. they always have a noun and a verb.(3 votes)
- If the question was "Which one is the best answer?", which one would be more grammatically correct than the other and why?(2 votes)
- According to the current American English Grammar rules, do we put a comma before the 'and' while listing items? (example- cats, dogs, and rabbits OR cats, dogs and rabbits)(1 vote)
- The comma before the “and” (or another coordinating conjunction) in a list is called the Oxford comma, so I just browsed the Google results for “sat oxford comma”. By these, it seems the SAT always uses the Oxford comma in its own writing, but doesn’t really write questions on it because this grammatical rule is still debated. It seems that if you wanted to be cautious, you would want to use it, like: “cats, dogs, and rabbits”.
Does this help?(1 vote)
- This is a problem I have time and time again. Answer B creates the sentence: Their concentric rings amplify and concentrate light. HOW is this a sentence? How is it acceptable to write a sentence that is incomplete? Whose rings? How can you rely on the previous sentence to supply critical information. (I have a list of dozens of these from your grammar videos and they are driving me crazy).(1 vote)
- “Their concentric rings amplify and concentrate light” isn’t grammatically a fragment. It isn’t always the most helpful thing to think of a sentence as making sense or being a complete thought. To be a sentence (or an independent clause), something needs to have a subject and predicate, and it can’t leave out parts of any phrases it introduces. For example, you can’t just say, “I will drive to” because you don’t give the preposition “to” any object. “I will drive to school” works as a complete sentence, though.
Nowhere in the requirements for a sentence is including the noun to which a pronoun refers (the pronoun’s antecedent).
Let’s take your first sentence as an example: “This is a problem I have time and time again.“ It’s a complete sentence, even though we don’t know what the demonstrative pronoun “this” is out of context. Of course I can tell that “this” is sentences omitting pronouns’ antecedents, but that one sentence doesn’t tell me that. It’s still a sentence.
Your first sentence also omits the antecedent of the pronoun “I”. Out of context, I’d have no clue who “I” is. Again, though, I can guess that “I” is in fact the Khan Academy learner “ddgraham447”.
Basically, a sentence needs to include a subject and predicate, and it can’t leave any phrase or clause it introduces unfinished. A sentence does not need to include its pronouns’ antecedents, though.
Does that help?(1 vote)
- Yet again, another question that will not be asked in the SAT...since these videos are definitely not being very helpful could someone possibly give me a detailed description of the different punctuations - and when which one is better over the rest?(1 vote)
- What is the purpose of a semicolon and how does it differ from the purpose of a comma?(0 votes)
- i think that a semicolon separates two main clauses. kind of like two sentences that are closely related. a comma would make both clauses one sentence and a full stop would make the clauses too separate. best to check it out though.(3 votes)
Video transcript
- [Instructor] So, let's take a look at these answers choices but before we do, let's talk about this
word fresnel for a second. Because I was confused
about it but my colleague, who has a long history
in the theatre world, tells me that in the
US, you don't say the s. You say fresnel, accent on the nel. Anyway. We are trying to figure out
what piece of punctuation should go between purpose and their. Should it be purpose, semi-colon, their as it is in the sentence? Should it be purpose,
period, capital T their? Should it be purpose, comma, their? Or should it be purpose, colon, their? Well, in order to figure out what piece of punctuation we ought to use, first we should evaluate
what this sentence is. Break it down into its component parts. So we've already got these
aforementioned fresnel lenses. Well, we know that this is a subject. So we've got fresnel
lenses, that's our subject. What's the verb that they take? Are. Okay. So there's our verb are shaped. And then we're going to be
looking for another noun that has a verb. Oh, there's another one. Rings. And then here's another verb, amplify and concentrate. So we've got a subject verb,
punctuation, subject verb. And so what we're looking at here then is two independent clauses. So I'll bracket them off. So we're looking for one answer for a piece of punctuation
that doesn't work. All the other answer choices should be able to unite
independent clauses. So we're looking for the one outlier. The one thing that can't do that. So, okay. So option A. Semi-colon. What does a semi-colon do? It unites independent clauses. So right off the bat, we can say, alright, knock this one out. We know that this works
so it is acceptable. We're looking for something
that's not acceptable. Option B. Purpose, period, capital T, their. Well, so if we know that
fresnel lenses are shaped in a specific way and for
a very specific purpose, is a an independent clause. Remember that an independent clause can also just be a sentence. That is, in fact, why
they are independent. So if this is a sentence, and this is also a sentence, then there's nothing wrong
with dividing them up with a period and capitalizing
the first letter of their. So, that checks out to me. Answer C. Well, now this is curious. We've got this comma here and we've got two independent clauses and we know that commas cannot
unite independent clauses on their own. They need to be combined
with a coordinating or a fanboys conjunction. That's the conjunction for,
and, nor, but, or, yet, and so. And if you use a comma, plus a coordinating or
fanboys conjunction, you can combine two independent clauses. But if you don't, if there's no fanboys, if it's just a comma on its own, that results in what
we call a comma splice, which is ungrammatical. So right now, option C is looking like it might be our choice. Well, but let's see if we can
eliminate answer choice D. Let's not jump to any conclusions. So this one uses a colon. Purpose, colon, their. Well, what are the powers of a colon? We know that the colon has
the power to introduce things. How do you do? I'm the colon. The colon can introduce. Lists, rather like this one. Descriptions. Explanations or quotations. And also in order to use a colon, and a colon has to follow
an independent clause. So what we're looking at
here is an independent clause connecting to another independent clause. That's not a list, but it is kind of a
description or explanation. Fresnel lenses are
shaped in a specific way and for a very specific purpose, colon, their concentric rings
amplify and concentrate light. So it describes their
shapes, concentric rings. And it describes why, the purpose for amplifying
and concentrating light. We're kind of using this
punctuation mark the colon as an accelerating agent, right? We set up in this first independent clause that fresnel lenses have
these particular properties and then we use the colon
to build the momentum into the second independent clause. And so what does this mean? It means that we can use colons, which means we can knock out this answer, which means that C is our correct choice. When you're given a punctuation question, like this one, the first thing to do is to figure out the context of the sentence. You know, how many independent clauses or dependent clauses are you working with. Because that can change the landscape, and that can change the
appropriate punctuation to use in that scenario.