ACT English : Punctuation Errors
Study concepts, example questions & explanations for ACT English
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Example Questions
Example Question #793 : Correcting Grammatical Errors
In the afternoon, I went to the park to watch the pigeons there for a while. I sat on a bench for the better part of an hour. When I finally got up to head home, by then, it was already getting dark, I saw all of the pigeons take to the air in a great commotion.
Choose the answer that best corrects the underlined portion of the sentence. If the underlined portion is correct as written, choose "NO CHANGE."
head home—by then, it was already getting dark,
NO CHANGE
head home: by then, it was already getting dark
head home—by then, it was already getting dark—
head home; by then, it was already getting dark:
head home—by then, it was already getting dark—
In the underlined part of the sentence, the phrase “by then, it was already getting dark” gives extra descriptive information; however, we don't really need this extra information to understand the sentence as a whole. So, we can punctuate it as an aside, by enclosing it within dashes or parentheses. Asides have to begin and end with the same type of punctuation, so the only right answer is the one that surrounds “by then, it was already getting dark” with two dashes.
Example Question #772 : Punctuation Errors
Despite the car salesman's assurances that the used car had been inspected and showed no problems—my brother still had reservations about its safety.
Choose the answer that best corrects the underlined portion of the sentence. If the underlined portion is correct as written, choose "NO CHANGE."
NO CHANGE
showed no problems; my brother
showed no problems: my brother
showed no problems. My brother
showed no problems, my brother
showed no problems, my brother
Here, the first part of the sentence, “Despite the car salesman's assurances that the used car had been inspected and showed no problems,” is a dependent clause. It cannot stand by itself as a complete sentence. The second part of the sentence, “my brother still had reservations about its safety,” is an independent clause, or a clause that can be a complete sentence by itself. To connect these two types of clauses here, we only need a comma.
Example Question #1135 : Act English
As we grow older, we leave behind certain things that defined us in the past: clothes, friends, neighborhoods, ideas. And leaving behind these things allows us to grow and change.
Choose the answer that best corrects the underlined portion of the sentence. If the underlined portion is correct as written, choose "NO CHANGE."
things that defined us in the past—clothes, friends, neighborhoods, ideas, and leaving
things that defined us in the past: clothes, friends, neighborhoods, ideas—and leaving
things that defined us in the past, clothes, friends, neighborhoods, ideas; and leaving
things that defined us in the past—clothes, friends, neighborhoods, ideas—and leaving
things that defined us in the past—clothes, friends, neighborhoods, ideas—and leaving
Grammatically, the first sentence is fine as it is; however, the second sentence, as it is written, is a fragment. When we combine these two sentences together, we have to think about what is the most important information, and what is additional, unnecessary information. Here, you could cut out the phrase “clothes, friends, neighborhoods, ideas”, and instead write “we leave behind certain things that defined us in the past, and leaving behind these things allows us to grow and change.” We can think of the phrase we could cut out as an aside, and enclose it between two dashes. We have to introduce and close an aside using the same sort of punctuation, which is why some of the other answer choices don't work.
Example Question #793 : Correcting Grammatical Errors
One summer when I was little, my uncle took me to an ice cream shop. There were so many flavors of ice cream on the menu. Flavors that I had never even imagined, and it took me almost twenty minutes to decide what to get.
Choose the answer that best corrects the underlined portion of the sentence. If the underlined portion is correct as written, choose "NO CHANGE."
flavors of ice cream on the menu: flavors that I had never imagined. And it took me
flavors of ice cream on the menu—flavors that I had never imagined, and it took me
NO CHANGE
flavors of ice cream on the menu—flavors that I had never imagined—and it took me
flavors of ice cream on the menu, flavors that I had never imagined: and it took me
flavors of ice cream on the menu—flavors that I had never imagined—and it took me
As it is written, the last sentence here is a fragment, so it needs to be corrected. We should connect the second and third sentences together. But how?
The phrase “Flavors that I had never imagined” continues the idea from the second sentence about how the shop had so many flavors of ice cream; however, “Flavors I had never imagined” provides extra information that isn't really necessary to understanding the sentence. We could cut that phrase out, and write, “There were so many flavors of ice cream on the menu, and it took me.” The best way to understand “Flavors I had never imagined” is to think of it as an aside, which should be enclosed in either parentheses or dashes.
Example Question #1141 : Act English
The shop offered strange, exotic-sounding flavors of ice cream, like “worms and dirt”, vanilla, gummy worms, and cookie crumbles, and “tortoiseshell”, chocolate ice cream blended with swirls of caramel and two kinds of dark chocolate.
Choose the answer that best corrects the underlined portion of the sentence. If the underlined portion is correct as written, choose "NO CHANGE."
“worms and dirt” (vanilla, gummy worms, and cookie crumbles) and “tortoiseshell” (chocolate ice cream blended with swirls of caramel and two kinds of dark chocolate).
“worms and dirt” vanilla, gummy worms and cookie crumbles; and “tortoiseshell” chocolate ice cream blended with swirls of caramel and two kinds of dark chocolate.
NO CHANGE
“worms and dirt”: vanilla, gummy worms, and cookie crumbles. And “tortoiseshell”: chocolate ice cream blended with swirls of caramel and two kinds of dark chocolate.
“worms and dirt” (vanilla, gummy worms, and cookie crumbles) and “tortoiseshell” (chocolate ice cream blended with swirls of caramel and two kinds of dark chocolate).
This is a complex sentence, so to simplify it, we can think about which parts are most necessary and which parts are provide additional, less important information. The two flavors of ice cream that the narrator names are “worms and dirt” and “tortoiseshell.” This is important information. Following the names of the flavors are their descriptions. The descriptions are the less important, additional information, so they can be enclosed in parentheses. Using parentheses is the clearest way to rewrite this sentence, because it shows what exactly the names of the ice cream flavors are, and what the descriptions of the flavors are.
There needs to be a pause between the part of the sentence about “worms and dirt” and the part about “tortoiseshell,” which is why some of the other answers are not right.
Example Question #771 : Punctuation Errors
The French philosopher Rene Descartes once went out to dinner at a French restaurant because (1) after all (2) where else would he go to eat? On that occasion (3) he ordered the escargot en beurre, the chicken liver paté, the gratineed scallops (4) and the blanquette de veau. Then he proceeded to order another portion of each dish. The waitress was appeased (5). She had never seen anyone order so much food in one sitting it (6) made her slightly ill to watch him eat it all. What made it worse he had no table manner at all since (7) philosophers tend to be thinking about life and death and (8) not about using a napkin. Finally (9) as he sipped the last of his burgundy (10) Descartes made a motion for the check. The waitress asked (11) "Would you care for any desert, monsieur?" At that point, Descartes replied, "I think not" (12) and promptly vanished.
Choose from the following four options the answer that best corrects the underlined mistake preceding the question number. If there is no mistake or the original text is the best option, choose "NO CHANGE."
restaurant; because,
restaurant—because,
restaurant: because,
NO CHANGE
restaurant—because,
The em-dash denotes a sudden addition to the sentence and is the only workable piece of punctuation here since what follows is not a complete sentence.
Example Question #772 : Punctuation Errors
Choose the answer that best corrects the underlined portion of the sentence. If the underlined portion is correct as written, choose "NO CHANGE."
Julia (and her ever-present dog, Fido) arrived at the fair with a sense of excitement and adventure.
NO CHANGE
Julia and her ever-present dog Fido arrived at the fair with a sense of excitement and adventure.
Julia, and her ever-present dog, Fido, arrived at the fair with a sense of excitement and adventure.
Julia - and her ever-present dog, Fido arrived at the fair with a sense of excitement and adventure.
NO CHANGE
Parentheses are used to provide additional information or to include information that may serve as an aside. In this case, the choice with the parentheses is the only choice that correctly identifies and her ever-present dog, Fido as additional information while using correct punctuation. A comma is not necessary after Julia because Julia and her ever-present dog are only two items separated by and. Some form of punctuation is necessary to indicate the additional information, but none of the other choices use punctuation consistently or correctly.
Example Question #773 : Punctuation Errors
Choose the answer that best corrects the underlined portion of the sentence. If the underlined portion is correct as written, choose "NO CHANGE."
Amarna was pursuing a career as a model, her parents certainly did not agree with her career trajectory, and found some promising opportunities in California, thousands of miles from home.
a model—her parents certainly did not agree with her career trajectory—and found
a model but her parents certainly did not agree with her career trajectory, she found
a model—her parents certainly did not agree with her career trajectory and found
NO CHANGE
a model, her parents certainly did not agree with her career trajectory; but
a model—her parents certainly did not agree with her career trajectory—and found
The correct answer choice implements em dashes appropriately, using them to add a relevant independent clause in a manner that interrupts the sentence without creating a run-on sentence or comma splice errors.
Example Question #1145 : Act English
“Democracy—Always a Good Thing?”
In the contemporary world, we tend to think that democracy is always the best form of government. We are enchanted by the idea of self-governance for it seems to affirm the maturity of the citizens of a nation. Instead of being ruled by benign-monarchs or the landed-aristocracy, the citizens of a democracy are people who exercise self-mastery in a fully human manner. Well, at least this is what we tend to think of the matter.
Really, however, democracy is an ambiguous affair. Often, we use such single terms to name two different types of social arrangements. Such an equivocation is understandable. Whenever all (or at least most) of the people take part in political life, it seems like we have a kind of democracy. However, it is important to make a clearer distinction.
On the one hand, there can be a community that aims at the common good. In such a group, the people come together to have a political community that aims to fulfill human goals that could not be done by isolated individuals. Such a group will come together to establish educational institutions to preserve culture, regulate commerce in order to help normalize economic interactions, pass many laws that regulate our social interactions, and undertake many other affairs. Although all of these things benefit the individuals in the given society, such a group of self-governing people do not aim merely at the private satisfaction of the people. This kind of “democracy” works together, for common political goals.
On the other hand, there can be a community that merely aims at the private goods of the citizens. The Greek philosopher Aristotle remarked in his text, the Politics, that democracy was a government by the numerous poor people for the sake of those same people’s private goods. Clearly, he was using “democracy” in this sense. If the people of a nation only come together in order to assure their own private freedom and to receive benefits for themselves, a given society is this kind of so-called democracy.
Of course, it is difficult to say what is the state of any particular nation today. Often, elements of each of these kinds of governance is found in a given country at a particular time. Still, it is important to be aware that such an “equivocation” is possible. Otherwise, we will end up saying rather foolish things like, “Democracy is always a good form of government,” or, “democracy is a horrible form of government.”
Choose the answer that best corrects the bolded and underlined portion of the passage. If the bolded and underlined portion is correct as written, choose "NO CHANGE."
ruled by benign monarchs or the landed aristocracy
NO CHANGE
ruled by benign-monarchs, or the landed-aristocracy
ruled by benign-monarchs, or the landed-aristocracy,
ruled by benign monarchs or the landed aristocracy
As written, the sentence misuses hyphens. You should use hyphens to unite descriptors of a noun. There is, however, only one adjective in each case, namely "benign" and "landed." Therefore, no hyphens are necessary.
Example Question #774 : Punctuation Errors
Choose the answer that best corrects the underlined portion of the sentence. If the underlined portion is correct as written, choose "NO CHANGE."
New structures are being built to house low-income families.
NO CHANGE
New structures are being built to house low-income-families.
New structures are being built to house low income families.
New structures are being built to house-low income families.
NO CHANGE
This sentence uses "low" to modify "income." When you use high or low before a word you add a hyphen. For example: high-income, low-flying, or high-stress.
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