Which of the following sentences is correctly punctuated?
a.Education is our best tool for fighting ignorance: we should all educate ourselves.
b.Education is our best tool for fighting ignorance; we should all educate ourselves.
c.Education is our best tool for fighting ignorance – we should all educate ourselves.
d.Education is our best tool for fighting ignorance, we should all educate ourselves.
Answer: B?
Right.
Yes, the correctly punctuated sentence is B.
Explanation: Punctuation plays an important role in conveying the intended meaning and structure of a sentence. Let's break down the options and look at how they are punctuated.
a. "Education is our best tool for fighting ignorance: we should all educate ourselves."
This sentence uses a colon (:), which is not appropriate in this context. A colon is typically used to introduce a list or to provide an explanation or amplification. It doesn't flow well here.
b. "Education is our best tool for fighting ignorance; we should all educate ourselves."
This sentence uses a semicolon (;) correctly. A semicolon is used to connect two closely related independent clauses. Here, "Education is our best tool for fighting ignorance" and "we should all educate ourselves" are two independent clauses that relate to each other.
c. "Education is our best tool for fighting ignorance – we should all educate ourselves."
This sentence uses an em dash (—) correctly. An em dash is used to set off a phrase or clause that adds emphasis or additional information. However, in this case, a semicolon would be more suitable since the two clauses are more closely related.
d. "Education is our best tool for fighting ignorance, we should all educate ourselves."
This sentence has a comma (,) separating the two clauses. A comma is not sufficient to separate two independent clauses; a coordinating conjunction (such as "and" or "but") or a punctuation mark such as a semicolon or em dash should be used.
Therefore, option B is the correctly punctuated sentence.