I ride this trail every (day - not on a bike, but on “Luigi.”)
The part enclosed within brackets is underlined.
F) No Change
G) day; not on a bike
H) day not on a bike
J) day, not on a bike;
I ruled out G and J because there is not an independent clause after the semi colon in both cases. However I chose H instead of F. Firstly, I assumed that the Comma + Fanboy = Period Rule Holds and the sentence would read as . (day not on a bike. On “Luigi.”
Secondly, if the comma was part of making a non essential clause, then a dash and a comma cannot be used to create a non essential clause together.
F is the correct answer.
Is there something I am missing here? Any help would be appreciated.
Oddly enough, I read this and my first thought was that the dash made perfect sense, simply because the sentence seems informal based on the Luigi nickname.
Your reasoning is sound for G and J.
If you use H, your sentence reads as, “I ride this trail every day not on a bike but on Luigi.” This creates a run-on, implying that we need some sort of punctuation. We can’t put a period after bike because that’s not what option H gives us.
That leaves us with F, No Change.
I did some research and found this site, which gives a general breakdown of the three types of dashes.
http://www.thepunctuationguide.com/hyphen-and-dashes.html
There seems to be quite a bit of argument about when to use dashes and what kinds of dashes to use. This site:
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/marks/dash.htm
will give you a bit more information about when they are used in writing.
I hope this helps!
Thanks for the reply!
Just some mild confusion. Now, I can understand how a lack of punctuation sounds off. But is it classified as a run on?
“Not on a bike, but on Luigi” doesn’t seem like a complete sentence to me. I think it is a dependent clause.
I have read that the dash can be used like a colon to introduce an explanation, example or short phrase. In this case there should be an independent clause before the dash. I ride this trail every day is independent. It would also help explain how what comes after is not a complete sentence because the dash is functioning like a colon.
Personally I should be more vigilant for independent and dependent clauses joined together without commas or subordinating conjunctions