Which is the  best  use of punctuation? a) pole vaulting—and shot put—are olympic track and field events. b) the industrial revolution (a period between 1750 and 1850) brought many changes to manufacturing. c) students will study economics, and history throughout the course. d) the show (was a spectacular event) that people will remember for many subsequent years.

B) The Industrial Revolution (a period between 1750 and 1850) brought many changes to manufacturing.

Explanation:

The phrase between parentheses can be omitted without rendering the sentence illegible or incoherent, which means these punctuation marks were used correctly. In option A, the error is that dashes were used to set off an element which is equally important to "Pole vaulting," since they are the two parts of the sentence's compound subject. In option C, the comma before "and" is unnecessary in a two-item list. Option D shows a wrong use of parentheses, enclosing a fragment of the predicate.

The correct option is B) The Industrial Revolution (a period between 1750 and 1850) brought many changes to manufacturing.

Further Explanation:

Punctuation marks are the symbols and signs which are used in the sentences to make them understandable. They add a pause in the sentence and clarifies their usage and pronunciation. They help in enabling the sentences to be readable. There are many punctuation marks which are used in the sentences. Some of them are a full stop, comma, question mark, exclamation marks, inverted commas, colon, brackets, and hyphen.

Each of them performs a specific function according to the requirement of the sentence. In the given sections in the question, the sentence (B) is the sentence in which the punctuation has been used in the best way. The punctuation marks used are brackets and full stop. Brackets are always used in pairs. They are applied to enclose certain thing which provides additional information to the sentence. The words kept under the brackets can be removed. The removal of the words does not affect the whole sentence. Usually, the dates are kept under brackets when they are written in the sentence. In sentence (B) the additional information 'a period between 1750 and 1850' has been kept under brackets. It is providing a piece of additional information about the Industrial revolution.

Learn more:

1. A is a group of words containing either a subject or a predicate, but not both. subordinate clause phrase independent clause compound sentence.

2. Which topic or issue would be most appropriate for a four- to five-page research paper?

Answer details:

Grade: Senior School

Subject: English Grammar

Chapter: Punctuation

Keywords:

Punctuation, Brackets, comma, hyphen, exclamation sign, question mark, inverted comma, colon, meaning, sentences.