Sentence interruptions (comma, parens, dashes)

On the English ACT, you’ll often see sentence interruptions.

A sentence interruption happens when a clause, word, or phrase is squeezed inside or around a sentence.

You will most certainly encounter these on the English ACT.

Sentence interruptions can happen at the beginning or end of a sentence. They can also happen right in the middle of it. When this occurs, there are three punctuation marks that can be used to interrupt the sentence. We’ll go through them, starting easy before working our way up to the most complicated.

Commas in sentence interruptions

Whenever something needs to be added into the sentence, commas are the go-to.

My parents grounded me, deservedly, for a month.

Here, the speaker wants the reader to know that they are acknowledging what they did was dumb. The word “deservedly” interrupts the sentence. It isn’t essential information to understand what’s happening here, so it goes in commas.

Parentheses in sentence interruptions

Parentheses operate under the same idea but they provide a “harder” stop. The ACT will almost never ask about these.

My parents grounded me (I deserved it) for a month.

Dashes in sentence interruptions

Dashes are the “hardest” stop. Stylistically, someone typically only uses dashes when the interruption has some emotional punch to it—to prove a point, to be humorous, or something along those lines.

Here’s what you need to remember when using dashes on the English ACT:

• Just like parentheses, if you start a sentence interruption with a dash, you need to close it with a dash before the sentence continues.
• Unlike parentheses, if the sentence interruption finishes the sentence out (so there is no continuing of the sentence afterward), you just close the sentence with a period or other punctuation mark like normal.

Correct example

My parents grounded me—for three whole years—for something I didn’t do.

Or:

My parents grounded me for something I didn’t do—for three whole years!

Both of these are good options.

Bad example

What we would NOT want to do is this:

My parents grounded me—for three whole years, for something I didn’t do.

This will sometimes be on the ACT as a wrong answer choice, specifically, where a sentence interruption begins with a dash but closes with a comma. Don’t fall for it!