Correcting Other Punctuation Errors - GMAT Verbal

While a colon can be used to introduce a list at the end of an independent clause, the list of three figures is, in this case, a parenthetical aside explaining who the sentence is talking about. As such, it should be set off like other interrupting parenthetical clauses—as in the credited response, which uses em-dashes.

"It's" is a contraction of "it is," while "its" is the possessive form of "it." We can see now how the in the first sentence, the contraction does not make sense, and should be replaced with the possessive.

The example sentence uses a colon where a semicolon would be more appropriate. While a colon requires an independent clause before it, when trying to separate two independent clauses it is best to use a semicolon. Also, in the example sentence, the first letter of the second clause is incorrectly capitalized. The best version of the sentence reads, "Jeremy flew to Europe last week; he said he wanted to be alone for awhile."

The original sentence uses the incorrect contraction "it's" instead of the correct possessive form of "it," "its." We can replace "it's" with "its" and leave the comma as-is.

The sample sentence uses a comma where a semicolon would be more appropriate. The semicolon properly separates two independent clauses in the sentence.

The colon is the correct punctuation mark to use in this instance, as it sets Daisy's two options apart from the first clause of the sentence.

This sentence joins two independent clauses without the use of a coordinate conjunction. A semicolon must separate independent clauses that are joined in this way. Furthermore, the word "however" is the start of the new clause, so the semicolon needs to occur before this word. "However" is an example of a conjunctive adverb; when they join sentences, a semicolon must occur before the word and a comma must appear afterwards. The correct answer choice is "The manager was considering instituting a new incentive program; however, the past incentive programs."

This sentence has a subordinate clause that is modifying a word in the main clause "eggs, fruit, and vegetables." This clause needs to be separated from the main clause with a colon, since it is not being joined with a conjunction, relative pronoun, or otherwise. Colons are used to indicate that one clause modifies another in some way. Here, the clause "eggs, fruit, and vegetables" modifies the previous clause by explaining what Julie went to the store to get. Furthermore, since "eggs, fruit, and vegetables" is a list, a comma needs to separate each item in the list. The best answer choice is "Julie went to the store to pick up a few things: eggs, fruit, and vegetables."

This sentence contains a punctuation error. Ending punctuation should always be on the inside of quotation marks. When using ending punctuation in quotes, a comma is not used. The correct answer is, "How was the party?" "

This sentence omits a period where one is needed. The correct answer is, " "Could you give me direction to this address?" asked Amir. "I think I am lost." Everything else is correct. Commas should never come after ending punctuation in a quote and "asked Amir" is the end of a sentence, so a period is appropriate, instead of a comma.

This sentence contains a misuse of italics. Italics/underlining should not be used when referring to a story. The titles of stories should be surrounded by quotation marks. Italics are for complete, longer works like novels and plays. All of the other punctuation is correct. The correct answer is, " "The Lottery," a short story by Shirley Jackson,"

"The Lottery" was first published in 1948.

This sentence contains an error in the placement of the question mark. Ending punctuation should always go on the inside of quotation marks. The correct choice is, "asked, "What time are we meeting for the concert?" "

The use of a question mark is inappropriate in this sentence for two reasons: first, the message in the quotation marks is not a direct question, but an indirect question. Question marks should only be used after direct questions, so it would be appropriate if the message was, "Will you be attending the event?" The second issue is that the quotation does not end this sentence, so even though it functions as an independent clause, you would not use any sort of ending punctuation. When a quotation ends/begins in the middle of a sentence, a comma should be used to separate it from the rest of the sentence. The correct choice is, " "Japser wants to know if you will be at the event," "

This sentence contains an error in the placement of the period at the end. Periods and any ending punctuation should always appear inside of quotation marks. Note, there should never be two ending punctuation marks, as in the case with the choice that has a period on the inside and outside of the quotation marks. No additional corrections are necessary. The correct choice is, "once said, "You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take." "

This sentence contains an error in the punctuation of the title of the book. Titles of books/full works should be underlined or italicized. The correct choice is, "Leaves Fall Where They May." Note that quotations are used for things like songs or poems - things generally a part of a larger body of work.

We need to use the hyphen punctuation in this sentence to avoid ambiguity. "Twenty-odd people' and 'Twenty odd people' makes a big difference to the meaning of the sentence! Therefore, we need to somehow connect the words. We do that with a hyphen.