Mechanics and Punctuation Quick Quiz Answer Key
Quick Quiz Answer Key
1) Each of the following sentences features the use of none, one, or two hyphens. Which sentences feature the correct grammatical use of hyphens?
- a) INCORRECT
- CORRECT version = GEERing Up is a non-profit organization that promotes science, engineering and technology to youth in the Greater Vancouver area.
- b) CORRECT
- c) CORRECT
- d) INCORRECT
- CORRECT version: The intellectually stimulating workshops enable students to gain experience in experiments and are designed to increase interest in science, engineering and technology.
- f) INCORRECT
- CORRECT version: The two-hour workshops are designed to give kids a taster, with the more comprehensive week-long camps for older students.
2) There should be a total of three hyphens in the following two sentences. Place them where they should go:
- Although the workshops only last for two hours at a time, they feature many different fast-paced activities to engage students. As well as trying to teach science, engineering and technology, GEERing Up’s mission is also to encourage students to develop social skills and adopt a happy-go-lucky approach to performing experiments; for this reason, curiosity is encouraged as much as academic success.
3i) Place one hyphen in the sentence below to give it a completely different (but still grammatically correct) meaning.
- a) In one of the activities, the volunteer showed students how to use a heavy-metal detector to find coins in the soil.
3ii) Why does it matter whether this hyphen is or is not included?
- In the second example, only heavy metals would be detected, whereas in the first one the metal detector is described as being heavy (to lift/carry) but you could assume that it would detect any metals.
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