[Video] Q15: No change or streams or dams or streams, dams or streams-dams

Explanation for Question 15 From the Writing Section on the 2017 April Sat

Question number 15 is again asking us about punctuation here. 2 The sentence reads by regulating water flow and stream stamps have ripple effects 3 that radiate to all surrounding organisms. 4 So what we want to do here is connect the two sentences. 5 This first portion by regulating water flow in streams is a dependent clause. 6 And the second part dams have ripple effects that radiate to all surrounding organisms 7 is an independent clause. We connect to those two with either a comma 8 or a potentially a dash, 9 but in this case, the first portion, 10 um, doesn't really make that fit. We usually want the first portion before a 11 dash to be an independent clause. 12 Um, so D doesn't quite fit. So really we're looking at that comma. 13 Um, we wouldn't use a semi-colon to combine a dependent and independent 14 clause. Really a comma is the best way to combine that dependent and independent 15 clause. 16 So B is definitely eliminated. That's not correct. 17 D is also eliminated. Um, 18 and the no change option currently leaves this dependent clause as a sentence fragment, 19 which is incorrect as well. So that only leaves answer choice C using that 20 comma as our best answer for this kind of question, 21 it's usually helpful to label your two pieces as dependent or independent 22 clauses. Can they stand on their own? 23 Can they not stand on their own and then figure out which type of 24 punctuation kind of matches up with what you're working with? 25 Since we were working with dependent clause and independent clause here, 26 comma was the best way to combine these two portions.