Supplements/Punctuation

Supplements

About Supplements

Supplements are words, clauses and etc that add extra information to a sentence in order to elaborate on the main idea of the sentence.

Supplements are divided into 2 separate types.

Nonessential elements are not necessary for the sentence to function. They must be separated from the main sentence by punctuation.

​Non-essential elements

Essential elements are necessary for the sentence to function and don't require punctuation..

​Essential elements

Supplements

​Essential Supplements

Essential elements are necessary for the sentence to function and don't require punctuation.

​No one understands how their coworker Jerry is married to such a beautiful woman.

In a basketball game, the team that scores the most points will win.

Nonessential elements

​Nonessential elements are not necessary for the sentence to function. They must be separated from the main sentence by punctuation.

The basketball team, which won the state championship last year, got on the bus.

Chris sees his therapist, Dr. Richard Nygard, fifteen times a week.

If the supplement comes in the middle of the sentence, it requires punctuation on both sides.

​Middle of sentence

If the supplement begins or ends the sentence, it only requires one punctuation mark.

​At the Beginning/End

Position

​The all-time leader in points, Lebron James is a gifted passer

​Lebron James, the all time leader in points, is a gifted passer.

• Link independent clauses (without a conjunction)

• Separate list items that already contain commas

• While the United Nations is headquartered in New York City, it also has central offices in Nairobi, Kenya; Geneva, Switzerland; and Vienna, Austria.

​Semicolons (;)

• separate nonessential elements from the sentence

• Link dependent clauses to independent clauses

• Link independent clauses with help from a coordinating (FANBOYS) conjunction

• separate list of items

​Commas

Punctuations

Dashes should only be used to separate nonessential elements from the rest of the sentence.

​Dashes (—)

Colons can only come at the end of an independent clause. They can introduce...

• Explanations and extra information

• Lists.

​Colons (:)

Continuation

Multiple Choice

In ancient Greece, an Epicurean was a follower of Epicurus, a philosopher whose beliefs revolved around the pursuit of pleasure. Epicurus defined pleasure as “the absence of pain in the body and of trouble in the _______ that all life’s virtues derived from this absence.

• soul,” positing

• soul”: positing

• soul”; positing

• soul.” Positing

Multiple Choice

The first computerized spreadsheet, Dan Bricklin’s VisiCalc, improved financial recordkeeping not only by providing users with an easy means of adjusting data in spreadsheets but also by automatically updating all calculations that were dependent on these _______ to VisiCalc’s release, changing a paper spreadsheet often required redoing the entire sheet by hand, a process that could take days.

• adjustments prior

• adjustments, prior

• adjustments. Prior

• adjustments and prior

Multiple Choice

The sandhill ______ to North America, has the longest fossil history of any extant bird at ten million years.

• crane a large bird native

• crane—a large bird native

• crane, a large bird native,

• crane, a large bird native

Multiple Choice

When he returned from the Galapagos islands in 1835, Charles Darwin brought back a young tortoise named ______ would live over 170 years before passing away at the Australia Zoo in 2006.

• Harriet, she

• Harriet; who

• Harriet she

• Harriet; she

Multiple Choice

Santa Clara Pueblo artist Roxanne Swentzell’s sculpture Mud Woman Rolls On consists of five human figures made of clay and plant fiber and arranged in descending size; each figure holds the smaller one in front of it. The arrangement of the figures, according to ______ represents her idea that “we all come from the Earth, generation after generation.”

• Swentzell,

• Swentzell:

• Swentzell

• Swentzell—

Multiple Choice

Emperor Ashoka ruled the Maurya Empire in South Asia from roughly 270 to 232 BCE. He is known for enforcing a moral code called the Law of Piety, which established the sanctity of animal ______ the just treatment of the elderly, and the abolition of the slave trade.

• life;

• life:

• life

• life,

Multiple Choice

In 1959, marine biologist Dr. Albert Jones founded the Underwater Adventure Seekers, a scuba diving ______ that is the oldest club for Black divers in the United States and that has helped thousands of diving enthusiasts become certified in the field.

• club

• club, and

• club-

• club,

FIN-