I was about to submit my questions and essays for Andover when I found something I was confused about. When quoting a question, do you then go on to put a period? Here’s an example: “Hello, is anyone there?”. No one answered. OR “Hello, is anyone there?” No one answered. Thanks in advance!
Also how about this: Of the bright city lights, packed and often noisy traffic jams, and the oddly lovable smell of burnt tires in Beirut. In that sentence, should the second ‘the’ be there?
When quoting a question, you don’t need the period after the quotation marks because the question mark inside the quotation marks serves as end punctuation. In your second question, the second “the” is fine, but what you have written is a fragment, not a complete sentence.
First off, no need to get anal about it; you will not get rejected over punctuation. That said, one does not double punctuate (there may be exceptions, but this one is not one of them). So it is “Hello, is anyone there?” No one answered.
The fact that it is a fragment is more problematic, but no, I would not use the second “the” although I don’t think it violates a grammar rule either way.
What part of the sentence is missing, and how should I rephrase it?
Oh hold up I see what you guys are saying don’t worry my prompt is ‘Tell us your story’ and I started off the essay with ‘My story is of…’. Then I repeated ‘of’ in a few more sentences, and this is one of them. So without the second ‘the’ it is.
You got one answer regarding “the.”
And much as I love a truncated sentence, it’s technically not proper. Or, has a place in unique sorts of writing, not necessarily an admissions app. Be wise.
hold on so with the ‘the’?. Just want to make sure before I submit.
You might consider putting a “the” before “packed.” If you have a “the” in front of each item in your series, it seems to draw attention to and emphasize each item. But yes, as @skieurope says, put a “the” before the first item (and it applies to all), or as I suggest, put a “the” in front of each item. Either way is okay. By the way, the sentence is a fragment because it lacks a subject and a verb; it is one long prepositional phrase starting with the preposition “Of” and containing three objects of the preposition.
I already submitted. But don’t worry it’s not a fragment. Read my comment above, #5. Thank you all for the help!
This is not a showstopper. Best wishes.
@SkiEurope - loved your comment and really think we can’t let it go…”no need to get anal about it”…REALLY? This is CC!! It’s one of the hallmarks of CC ! =))
@Golfgr8 Call it preparation for Andover (or any BS), T20 college, T14 law school, and beyond. The OP, if he gets in, will find that time is a finite resource. Pick your battles. 