ShmoopTube

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Here’s your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by common ingredients.

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Sorry, we couldn’t come up with something fancier.

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How would you correct this underlined segment from the passage, if at all?

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a common ingredient—sugar?

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And here are the potential answers...

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In the original sentence, the writer uses an em dash to put some distance between “sugar”

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and the rest of the sentence.

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Hm, maybe the writer thinks the sentence needs to cut back on sweets.

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In any case, this choice looks pretty good to us, but we’ll go through the rest of

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the options just to be on the safe side.

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No doubt, choice (B) is incorrect.

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Semicolons are used to connect independent clauses, meaning clauses that can stand on

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their own because they have a subject and verb.

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The noun “sugar” just can’t make it alone, so we’re taking (B) out of consideration.

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Option (C) doesn’t work either.

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With the way this sentence is structured, some kind of punctuation is needed to set “sugar”

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apart, while still connecting the noun to the sentence in a way that’s grammatically correct.

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(D) sets “sugar” apart with an ellipsis.

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It’s a fun idea, but it doesn’t fly grammatically.

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Ellipses are usually used to show an omission of some kind. If we’re quoting something

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and want to leave a bit out, we stick a “dot dot dot” in there to stand in for the part we’re omitting.

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Ellipses are also used when writing dialogue, where they show that someone’s thoughts trail off.

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It reminds us of the time...

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Sorry, our brains wondered a bit there.

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We gave the other options a shot, but choice (A) gets it right by using the em dash

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to emphasize the noun “sugar.”

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On a personal note....

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Not only is (A), "no change," the correct answer, it was also the fortune that came

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with our Kung Pao Beef right before we lost every last cent playing a game of piggy-bank

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catch while standing over a subway grate.

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Eerie.

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