The following passage is adapted from a cognitive neuroscience article. What punctuation mark should be written in the blank to grammatically connect the preceding independent clause to the explanatory list that follows?
Answer:When human brains process language, two distinct regions in the left hemisphere are activated【:】 Broca's area, which is responsible for speech production, and Wernicke's area, which is associated with speech comprehension.
Answer
A colon (:) or an em dash (—) is the correct punctuation mark to connect the independent clause to the list.
The clause before the blank is grammatically independent, whereas the phrase after the blank is a list of noun phrases identifying the specific brain regions. A colon or a single em dash is the standard convention to link an independent clause to an explanatory list or definition that follows it. In this context, it properly introduces the 'two distinct regions' without creating grammatical fragmentation.
Step-by-Step Solution
Key Concept
Using colons or dashes to introduce lists and explanatory details following independent clauses