Digital SAT Reading & Writing: A Couple of Tricky "However" Questions

These questions are hard to categorize. The College Board would refer to these as "Boundaries" questions, as they "require test takers to apply Standard English conventions when editing short texts (typically one or two sentences in length) to ensure that the resultant sentence(s) conventionally separate or join phrases, clauses, or sentences."
The two questions I go through in this video both involve the transition word "however," but the concepts discussed here would apply just the same for any transitional adverb (aka conjunctive adverb), such as "therefore," "nevertheless," "still," and so on.
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Full text of example questions:
(1) Journalists have dubbed Gil Scott-Heron the “godfather of rap,” a title that has appeared in
hundreds of articles about him since the 1990s. Scott-Heron himself resisted the godfather _______ feeling that it didn’t encapsulate his devotion to the broader African American blues music tradition as well as “bluesologist,” the moniker he preferred.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A) nickname, however
B) nickname, however;
C) nickname, however,
D) nickname; however,
(2) Sociologist Alton Okinaka sits on the review board tasked with adding new sites to the Hawai‘i Register of Historic Places, which includes Pi‘ilanihale Heiau and the ‘Ōpaeka‘a Road Bridge. Okinaka doesn’t make such decisions _______ all historical designations must be approved by a group of nine other experts from the fields of architecture, archaeology, history, and Hawaiian culture.
Which choice completes the text so that it conforms to the conventions of Standard English?
A) single-handedly, however;
B) single-handedly; however,
C) single-handedly, however,
D) single-handedly however

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[@345tutoring]

Thank you so much for the nice comment. I'm glad it was helpful. :)

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[@zarghamali4169]

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[@345tutoring]

Hey, better late than never. :) I'll be adding a lot more stuff between now and the next test date, but in the meantime, best of luck tomorrow.

[@zarghamali4169]

@@345tutoring I gave my SAT this mornin and just came back home and the only thing I want to say you are the GOAT pucntuation used to be my weakpoint but today I solved all the question in less than 5 min . Thanks man

[@deepakbarii]

I wish I found you a lot sooner! I got my SAT coming up on 11 March. Hoping to learn and practice from you as much as I can!!!

[@345tutoring]

Thank you, and glad it's been helpful. I'll be adding more content between now and the next test date. Good luck on Saturday!

[@zisthere]

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[@deepakbarii]

The English module 1 was good and there was a little time left after solving. Module 2 however was quite lengthy. ( your period = semicolon video literally saved my life 😭). Maths module 1 was easy. Module 2 was hard af. Left out 3-4 questions at the end due to time constraint. So practicing on questions along with time limitation would help a lot.

[@345tutoring]

Yes, the second math module gets pretty difficult toward the end. I need to add some more math videos. It seems like other channels have the math section covered a little better (?), so I've been focusing on verbal, but I can still add some math.

[@deepakbarii]

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[@parthkhandelwal489]

This was exactly the question type I was looking for.

[@rozkurd8907]

I genuinely NEVER comment on youtube videos, but the way you explained these types of questions and the rules that go along with them helped me out so much!!! THANK YOU :))

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[@SarahBadawi-u7l]

thank you so much sir since I've discovered your channel English portion became incredibly easy

[@usmanahmadt599]

4:40 but wouldn’t placing however between two commas make it non essential?

[@345tutoring]

Yes, but it actually is non-essential. If you remove it from the sentence, what's left is still grammatical and still makes up a complete sentence. But these kinds of transition words (conjunctive adverbs) are always non-essential -- in contrast to coordinating conjunctions (like "but") or subordinating conjunctions (like "although"), which typically can't be removed without altering the sentence structure.

[@olariche2455]

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[@345tutoring]

:)

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[@danielkim4151]

This was exactly what I was looking for!!! Joined your membership :) ❤

[@hasanalam5808]

i wish i could find you months befor , sadly i'll be giving test this oct! please pray sir

[@345tutoring]

I'm glad you found it though. And you still have three weeks (almost) before the October SAT. (Also, since we're all about English and grammar here, the standard phrase in English is "take a test" -- at least if you're a student. The teacher gives the exam; the student takes it. 🙂 )

[@hasanalam5808]

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[@asylum2200]

always was tripping up on these, thanks.

[@jamielee9921]

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[@Y_B_C_M01]

Precise explanations❤️💯

[@addicron7812]

how can you be this good in explaining?

[@parthkhandelwal489]

Cleared all my doubts. Thanks!

[@shotzszn5895]

hey sorry i couldnt understand why it isnt B in the single handedly ;however, because the blue sentence is used to contrast the red sentence so doesnt that mean the word however should be in the second clause and not in the first?

[@345tutoring]

Answer choice B would indicate that the contrast was between the red and blue portions (i.e., between "Okinaka doesn't make such decisions single-handedly" and "all historical designations must be approved..."). But that isn't what we want here. The blue portion does not contrast with the red portion; it supports it. The contrast here is between the opening sentence (the yellow part) and the first part of the second sentence (the red part). The contrast has to do with the fact that she has this task/duty, BUT she doesn't make the decisions on her own. There are a couple of really similar examples on Bluebook Test 1. Module 1, #21 and Module 2, #22 both follow a very similar pattern as this example.

[@officialaditsingh]

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[@willpower4477]

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[@pewnixx]

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[@mamudouconateh8308]

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[@roangurnani6516]

in the first example, you chose option C because the sentence "feeling that it didnt....he preferred" is a dependent clause? i am confused because you said that if the second clause opposes the first then a semicolon should appear after 'however', so why isnt it the case with the first example? does the " ,however," have the same effect as the ",however ;" but with a dependent clause following it?

[@345tutoring]

Ooh, I hope I did not say that. "feeling that it didn't..." would be a phrase, not a DC. ---- you said that if the second clause opposes the first then a semicolon should appear after 'however', The first example is different, because there, the word "however" appeared right at the juncture between two ICs. Here, it appears in the midst of a single IC (or, more precisely, between an IC and a phrase that elaborates on the IC.) I'm not sure if this addresses your question, but the gist of the Gil Scott-Heron example is as follows: The second sentence ("Scott-Heron himself resisted the godfather nickname") contrasts with the first ("Journalists have dubbed Gil Scott-Heron the “godfather of rap” ....). Setting aside the phrase "feeling that it didn't encapsulate...," the gist of what's happening here is this: "Journalists have dubbed Gil Scott-Heron the “godfather of rap.” However, Scott-Heron himself resisted the godfather nickname." Alternatively: "Journalists have dubbed Gil Scott-Heron the “godfather of rap.” Scott-Heron himself resisted the godfather nickname, however." If the sentence ended there, we would just use a period. However, since they are adding an additional phrase (which is neither an IC nor a DC, but merely a phrase), we add a comma after the "however." The other example (the Hawaii one) is different because the "however" is followed by a second independent clause and not just a phrase. Does this help?

[@roangurnani6516]

@@345tutoring yup got it now thank you so much!! i probably just misundertsood what you said, my bad!

[@Goodvibes-w8c]

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[@NathanJi2026]

THANK YOU

[@quillerity07]

very good explaination man. I solved both of them tho. just by observing the way you approached the first question. i was able to solve that second one on my own. THANKSS again for the clarification of punctuations

[@LakshyaSLY]

awesome video really helped me out

[@345tutoring]

Glad it helped, and glad you found it. Thank you for the nice comment.

[@MonuMishraa]

Thanks Goat

[@haiyen-laura365]

useful

[@Africantulip]

First of all, thank you very much . I get the whole concept ,but I am still thinking about the "the moniker he preferred". My question is how that phrase is an appositive of bluesologist . In other words, if there was a way I could identify it next time

[@345tutoring]

This is a good question. I think a big part of it in this case is knowing the word "moniker" (nickname), which helps to clarify that this is a description of the term "bluesologist." But to help me answer this question, is there another way that you would have categorized (or perceived it) upon reading it? Also, I should probably be more precise with my terminology. The example here is a non-essential appositive. The same phrase could also function as an essential appositive in a different context (but I'm struggling to think of one as I type this).

[@shreysomani359]

hi, Feeling that...."bluesologist" This part has 2 commas doesn't it. And the sentence also makes sense without it. So doesnt that mean that this is a non-essential supplement? And then you can write the sentence without it as: "However, the moniker he preferred". In other words, "He preferred the moniker". This sentence has a subject "he", and a verb "preferred", so this is an independent clause. Please explain it to me, why cant it be a semi colon there because even the last part, in this sense, is an independent clause 3:07 is when this hapenned btw

[@345tutoring]

No, I wouldn't say that this portion qualifies as an interruption. The comma at the end of that portion is used to set off the interruption/appositive at the end of the sentence ("the moniker he preferred"). Without that portion at the end, there would have just been a period after "bluesologist" (well, technically it would be placed inside the closed quotation mark, like this: "bluesologiist.").

[@JuhaYoon-s1o]

thank you! and also if you put did next to "as well as", does that mean "bluesologist " encapsulates his devotion or not?

[@345tutoring]

I'm not sure I understand the question. I did think it would have been clearer if they had said "feeling that it didn't encapsulate his devotion ... as well as 'bluesologist' did" (or "as well as did 'bluesologist'"). They're comparing how well one term encapsulated his devotion to how well another term did. So the "did," in my opinion, should have been included (as they have been known to test this very issue on the current/paper SAT in the context of questions involving logical comparison). However, they were not testing that concept here, so it was more of a side note or observation than something central to this particular question.

[@JuhaYoon-s1o]

wow!! this video is awesome! I was exactly looking for this question type! is starting from "feeling that it didn't ... preferred " a dependent sentence or just a phrase? what does it mean a verb that can be conjugated?

[@345tutoring]

It is just a phrase. If I called it a dependent clause in the video, that was incorrect on my part. :( "A verb that can be conjugated" = a finite verb. Example: I like to cook. She likes to cook. They like to cook. In this sentence, "like(s)" is the finite verb. Its form varies depending on the subject. In contrast, "cook" is an infinitive. It doesn't vary, regardless of the subject.

[@willdowy2576]

Thank you sir

[@345tutoring]

you're welcome. thanks for watching

[@bunziez2181]

On the first example, why wouldn’t option A work? In particular, why wouldn’t the however work without a comma after?

[@345tutoring]

Good question. I think it's safe to say that you will always need a comma after "however" (or any other transitional adverb: "therefore," "moreover," "for example," etc.), regardless of whether it's preceded by a period/semicolon or a comma. In this case, we would have need a comma before "feeling..." even if the word "however" hadn't been there. The portion beginning with "feeling" is a participle phrase, and while participle phrases don't always need to be preceded by commas, one is definitely needed here. Here is some additional stuff on commas before participle phrases (this was members-only, but I've made it public for now): kzbin.info/www/bejne/f5eocqima8afl5o And then a little bit more about punctuation around transitional adverbs (aka conjunctive adverbs) as opposed to coordinating conjunctions: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mZDadY1-nd-le6s kzbin.info/www/bejne/oamsqp6gfbZsg5I

[@bunziez2181]

@@345tutoringThank you so much. With other videos I’ve watched they mainly just give the answer and a smaller explanation than you are giving in the video. I am glad to have found your page!

[@smerdyakov11]

in the ;however,i'm still still going out example, isn't the clause dependent and we can't use semicolon ?

[@345tutoring]

No, it's OK to use a semicolon there because "I'm still going out" is an independent clause.

[@zohairnoorkhan8978]

Can we rule out B cuz that isn't the correct way to link conjunctive adverb and an independent clause.(For The nickname question)

[@345tutoring]

No, I wouldn't say so. It would be possible to link them in such a way. For example: "Most birds can fly. Some cannot, however. These flightless birds include penguins and ostriches." So it would be possible, but as in the above example, the contrast would be between the first and second sentences, not the second and third sentences.

[@zohairnoorkhan8978]

@@345tutoring thank u I got that part later in the video that's only thing I was confused about

[@mariaali866]

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[@justintursunov]

i think the answer for the 25th question should be ( B ). Isn't it?

[@345tutoring]

The answer to the question about Gil Scott-Heron is C) nickname, however,

[@JeonJungkook-sk2ts]

​@@345tutoringI don't get why it's not a semicolon and comma because your last sentence was similar to that question

[@345tutoring]

@@JeonJungkook-sk2ts Hmm, I'm not quite sure I understand your question. You don't get why it's a not a semicolon and comma on which question? And which other sentence was is it similar to? If you can clarify, I'll do my best to answer, either here in the comments or in a followup video.

[@bungeepete7393]

Fantastic explanation.

[@KO-nr2rr]

Chat GPT said B for 1st question

[@345tutoring]

The correct answer is C.