Correcting Punctuation Errors: Commas in Lists - SAT Writing

The underlined words make up a list. Such lists need to have each element separated for clarity and understanding. "Sailors, marines, and soldiers" is the best choice among the answers.

A list like the one presented in the underlined portion of the sentence needs to be separated somehow, usually by commas. The only choice that appropriately separates the three items is "plenty of medicine, snacks, and water," which is the correct answer.

The underlined phrase contains a series, or a list of grouped items. All series in a sentence must be divided by each other for linguistic and logical clarity. The best way to do this is with commas, making "on supplies, troops, and ammunition," the correct answer.

The list of names that make up the subjects of the sentence all need to be appropriately punctuated. Any such list needs have all the elements set apart from each other; therefore, "Tom, Dick, and Harry have all seen" is the correct answer.

The underlined portion of the sentence includes a list of three items. All such lists must have the items in them separated in some fashion; therefore, the correct answer is "including television, advertising, and social media."

The list of names that forms the subject of the sentence is written incorrectly. All lists need to have commas separating their parts from each other for purposes of clarity. The correct answer choice is "Jane, Sally, and Suzy all went to the zoo together."

The list that forms the subject of the sentence, "Angles, Jutes, and Saxons," appropriately separates its items with commas. The comma between "Saxons" and "were" splits the subject of the sentence from the verb, and should be removed. This makes "Angles, Jutes, and Saxons were" the correct answer choice.

The list that functions as the subject of the sentence needs to have commas separating its elements, distinguishing the different parts. The only answer choice that does this is "Politicians, organizers, and reformers all came together," making it the correct answer choice.

A list like the one in the underlined portion of the sentence must always be appropriately separated out, especially when the elements of the list are two words, like "foreign policy." The only answer choice that clearly delineates the three component parts of the list is "economics, foreign policy, and health care."

Any list like the one used as the subject of the sentence needs to have its elements separated by commas to distinguish the separate parts. The only answer choice that appropriately does this is "The athletes, musicians, and actors," with every other answer choice being grammatically incorrect.

The list that finishes the sentence needs to have its three parts, "engaged" and "alert" and "interested," separated by commas. There are no other corrections that need to happen in the sentence. This makes the correct answer choice "to keep an audience engaged, alert, and interested."

A list like the one in the underlined portion of the sentence always needs to be separated by commas to clearly distinguish between the different elements in the list. The only answer choice that correctly does this is "Rowing, lacrosse, and tennis are," making it the correct answer choice.

The list that is the subject of the sentence contains three separate elements, but only appropriately separates two of them. All lists of three or more elements need to have commas between each component. The only answer choice that appropriately does this is "Reading, writing, and arithmetic have."

The three items in the list of the underlined portion of the sentence, "thoroughbreds" and "Arabians" and "saddlebred horses," are lumped together in one large pile. All such lists need to be separated by commas, to show the separate items clearly. The only answer choice that correctly does this is "between thoroughbreds, Arabians, and saddlebred horses."

The three-part list that is the subject of this sentence does not employ appropriate demarcation between its separate parts. Lists like the one in the sentence need to be separated out by commas to show their individual parts. "Dogs, cats, and small animals have always been" is the only answer choice that appropriately deploys commas in the list.

The list of items that ends the sentence as its object is not properly separated out by commas. Any list needs to have its elements clearly delineated, and of all the answer choices, the only one that accomplishes this is "The school offered programs in engineering, computer science, and architecture."

A list like the one that makes up the object of the underlined phrase must be have its items appropriately separated by commas, which the sentence does not do as it is written. The only answer choice that correctly separates the three items by using commas is "with a style that was outdated, stale, and unsatisfying."

Whenever you have a list of things in a sentence, each item on the list—whether they are nouns, verbs, phrases, etc.—must be separated by commas. Therefore, "I like to go camping, fishing, and hiking, but" is the best way to construct the first part of this sentence. After all, "camping," "fishing," and "hiking," are all separate grammatical items.

From the context of the rest of the sentence, you should know that there are four items in the list in the latter half of the sentence. Each item in this list should be separated by commas, therefore the best construction of the underlined portion is, "Scipio, Marius, Sulla, and Caesar." Each of these proper nouns are separate grammatical objects, and should thus be separated with punctuation when used together in a list.