Question

[1] Sameer took a deep breath, straightened his tie, and turned the doorknob. [2] Despite his nerves he was ready for his first interview and had thought through each potential question. Which is the best way to rewrite sentence 2?

Answer 1

Answer:

The best way to rewrite sentence 2 is: Despite his nerves, he was ready for his first interview; he had thought through each potential question.

Explanation:

To rewrite sentence 2 in order to make it more accurate we can add punctuation marks, in this case, we use a comma and semicolon.

One of the uses of the comma is after a dependent clause which is starting a statement, Despite his nerves is a dependent clause since it doesn't have enough information to communicate a message by itself.

Semicolons can be used as a substitute of a comma followed by the word and, we are connecting two sentences that make reference to the same subject and have parallel, instead of using words as connectors we use a semicolon.

Answer 2

Answer:

D). 'Despite his nerves, he was ready for his first interview; he had thought through each potential question'.

Explanation:

The best way to rewrite the sentence 2 is displayed through option D as mentioned above. It is the only one among the given options which is correctly punctuated. As per the punctuation rules, if the subordinate clause( 'Despite his nerves') is preceding the principal clause('he was ready for his first interview'), then it is usually separated by a comma which is reflected in this option. The semicolon (;) aptly links the two equivalent ideas or related thoughts ('he was ready...', 'he had thought...'). Thus, option D is the correct answer.