Architect Frank Lloyd Wright revolutionized residential ______ evidenced by his innovative integration of buildings with natural surroundings, pioneer...

Let's begin by understanding the meaning of this sentence. We'll use our understanding of pause points and segment the sentence as shown - understanding and assimilating the meaning of each segment bit by bit!

Sentence Structure

• Architect Frank Lloyd Wright
  • revolutionized residential design [?]
    • as evidenced by
      • his innovative integration of buildings with natural surroundings,
      • pioneering use of open floor plans,
      • and democratic philosophy that quality design should be accessible to all.

Understanding the Meaning

Let's start reading from the beginning:

'Architect Frank Lloyd Wright revolutionized residential design'

This tells us something significant:

• Frank Lloyd Wright (a famous architect)
• completely changed residential design in a revolutionary way

This is a complete thought - we know who did what.

Now we reach the blank. This is where we have the blank.

Let's look at the choices:

• A gives us a period and starts a new sentence
• B gives us no punctuation at all
• C gives us a comma
• D gives us the word "and" plus "as"

To see what works here, let's read the rest of the sentence and understand what it's saying!

The sentence continues: 'as evidenced by his innovative integration of buildings with natural surroundings, pioneering use of open floor plans, and democratic philosophy that quality design should be accessible to all.'

Now let's understand what this is telling us:

• 'As evidenced by'
  • This phrase means "as shown by" or "as proven by"
  • It's introducing EVIDENCE or EXAMPLES of how he revolutionized design
• Three specific examples are given:
  • His innovative integration of buildings with natural surroundings
  • His pioneering use of open floor plans
  • His democratic philosophy that quality design should be accessible to all

So the complete picture is:

• The sentence makes a claim (Wright revolutionized design)
• Then provides three pieces of evidence to support that claim

What do we notice about the structure here?

• The first part is a complete thought:
  • "Architect Frank Lloyd Wright revolutionized residential design"
  • This could stand alone as a sentence
• The second part starting with "as evidenced by" is NOT a complete thought:
  • It cannot stand alone
  • It depends on the first part to make sense
  • It's providing supporting information about the main statement
• When we have a complete statement followed by a phrase that adds supporting evidence or explanation, we need a comma to connect them clearly.

The correct answer is C (design, as) - the comma properly connects the main statement to the supporting phrase that follows.

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Using Commas to Connect Independent Clauses with Dependent Modifying Phrases

When you write a complete statement (called an independent clause in grammar terms) and then want to add a phrase that provides evidence, explanation, or supporting details that cannot stand alone (called a dependent phrase), you use a comma to connect them:

Pattern:

• Complete statement + comma + dependent phrase starting with "as"

Example 1:

• The research confirmed the hypothesis, as demonstrated by the consistent results across all trials.
  • "The research confirmed the hypothesis" = complete statement
  • "as demonstrated by the consistent results" = dependent phrase providing evidence

Example 2:

• The company expanded rapidly, as evidenced by its opening of fifty new stores.
  • "The company expanded rapidly" = complete statement
  • "as evidenced by its opening of fifty new stores" = dependent phrase providing evidence

In our question:

• "Architect Frank Lloyd Wright revolutionized residential design" = complete statement
• "as evidenced by his innovative integration..." = dependent phrase that cannot stand alone
• Comma needed to properly connect these elements

The comma serves as a bridge, showing that what follows builds upon or supports the main statement while maintaining clear sentence structure.