Question

Identify the INCORRECTLY punctuated sentence.

a) Reesa is wearing a dark, green sweater.
b) Around the collar are tiny white pearls.
c) The sweater has six shiny buttons.
d) She discovered the sweater in a cold, musty closet.

Answer 1

The incorrectly punctuated sentence is 'Reesa is wearing a dark, green sweater.' The correct punctuation should be 'Reesa is wearing a dark green sweater' without a comma between 'dark' and 'green'. Other sentences are correctly punctuated. option a is correct.

Step-by-step explanation:

The student's question asks for identifying the sentence with incorrect punctuation. Among the options provided, the sentence 'Reesa is wearing a dark, green sweater.' is the one that is punctuated incorrectly. When describing colors, commas are used to separate adjectives that each independently modify the noun. However, in this context, 'dark green' is a compound adjective describing the color of the sweater, so no comma is needed between 'dark' and 'green.' The correct punctuation would be: 'Reesa is wearing a dark green sweater.' Meanwhile, the other options do not contain punctuation errors.

Let's look at the examples to further illustrate proper comma usage:

1. 'I finally found my keys and I got to work just in time.' Comma is needed before the coordinating conjunction 'and' that connects two independent clauses.
2. In the example sentence with Susan, a comma is needed after 'well': Though Susan wasn't feeling well, she went to the store anyway and bought ice cream, pizza, and candy.
3. Review of hyphen usage: 'I have nothing to wear for my job interview but a paint-splattered tie.' Here, 'paint-splattered' is a compound adjective describing the tie and should be hyphenated.

Out of the alternatives provided, the mention of the correct option for the incorrectly punctuated sentence is (a).