Quick help please.
This is my thesis, and I'm a bit confused about the proper punctuation.
The aggrandizement of authoritarianism, as shown by dictators Hitler and Lenin, relies on manipulation of neurotic personalities as reflected in the theories of Erich Fromm and B.F. Skinner.
or
The aggrandizement of authoritarianism, as shown by dictators, Hitler and Lenin, relies on manipulation of neurotic personalities as reflected in the theories of Erich Fromm and B.F. Skinner.
or
The aggrandizement of authoritarianism, as shown by dictators - Hitler and Lenin, relies on manipulation of neurotic personalities as reflected in the theories of Erich Fromm and B.F. Skinner.
or
The aggrandizement of authoritarianism, as shown by dictators - Hitler and Lenin - relies on manipulation of neurotic personalities as reflected in the theories of Erich Fromm and B.F. Skinner.
The first one is correct. All the others contain errors.
See #4: http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/commas.htm
http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/marks/dash.htm
In your thesis statement, you are providing examples of dictators Hitler and Lenin. When including these examples, the correct punctuation option would be:
"The aggrandizement of authoritarianism, as shown by dictators Hitler and Lenin, relies on manipulation of neurotic personalities as reflected in the theories of Erich Fromm and B.F. Skinner."
This option uses a pair of commas to set off the names of the dictators, separating them from the main sentence. This is the most standard and accepted way to include examples within a sentence.
The other punctuation options you provided have some issues:
- The second option ("The aggrandizement of authoritarianism, as shown by dictators, Hitler and Lenin, relies on manipulation of neurotic personalities as reflected in the theories of Erich Fromm and B.F. Skinner.") uses an unnecessary comma before the first example. This disrupts the flow of the sentence.
- The third option ("The aggrandizement of authoritarianism, as shown by dictators - Hitler and Lenin, relies on manipulation of neurotic personalities as reflected in the theories of Erich Fromm and B.F. Skinner.") uses hyphens to separate the examples, which is not the appropriate way to structure this sentence. Hyphens are typically used for word divisions, not to separate examples.
- The fourth option ("The aggrandizement of authoritarianism, as shown by dictators - Hitler and Lenin - relies on manipulation of neurotic personalities as reflected in the theories of Erich Fromm and B.F. Skinner.") uses multiple hyphens to separate the examples, which is also not the correct approach. Instead of using hyphens, commas should be used to set off the examples.
Remember, the main idea is to use commas to clearly indicate that the names of the dictators are examples in the sentence.