In 2017, artists Isabel and Ruben Toledo redesigned the costumes and sets for The Miami City Ballet's production of The...

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

• In 2017,
  • artists Isabel and Ruben Toledo
    • redesigned the costumes and sets
      • for The Miami City Ballet's production of The Nutcracker [?]
• to reviewers,
  • the Toledos' designs
    • helped infuse the production
      • with elements of Miami's Latin American culture.

Understanding the Meaning

Let's start reading from the beginning:

In 2017, artists Isabel and Ruben Toledo redesigned the costumes and sets for The Miami City Ballet's production of The Nutcracker.

This first part is telling us:

• When: in 2017
• Who: artists Isabel and Ruben Toledo
• Did what: redesigned the costumes and sets
• For what: The Miami City Ballet's production of The Nutcracker

This is a complete statement - it tells us who did what, and it makes complete sense standing alone.

Now we've reached the blank. Let's look at our choices:

• Choice A: "Nutcracker according," (comma after "according")
• Choice B: "Nutcracker, according" (comma after "Nutcracker")
• Choice C: "Nutcracker according" (no punctuation)
• Choice D: "Nutcracker. According" (period after "Nutcracker")

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

"according to reviewers, the Toledos' designs helped infuse the production with elements of Miami's Latin American culture."

Now let's understand what this second part is telling us:

• "According to reviewers"
  • tells us the source of the information that follows
• "the Toledos' designs helped infuse the production with elements of Miami's Latin American culture"
  • Who/what: the Toledos' designs
  • Did what: helped infuse the production
  • With what: elements of Miami's Latin American culture

What do we notice about the structure here?

• The first part is a complete thought:
  • "In 2017, artists Isabel and Ruben Toledo redesigned the costumes and sets for The Miami City Ballet's production of The Nutcracker."
  • This could stand alone as its own sentence.
• The second part is also a complete thought:
  • "According to reviewers, the Toledos' designs helped infuse the production with elements of Miami's Latin American culture."
  • This could also stand alone as its own sentence.

When we have two complete thoughts that can each stand alone as separate sentences, we cannot just connect them with a comma or run them together with no punctuation. We need proper separation.

The correct answer is Choice D - we need a period after "Nutcracker" to properly separate these two complete sentences.

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Separating Two Complete Sentences

When you have two complete thoughts that could each stand alone as their own sentence (called independent clauses in grammar terms), you cannot join them with just a comma or with no punctuation. You must separate them properly using one of these methods:

Method 1: Use a period (create two separate sentences)

• First sentence: "The team won the championship."
• Second sentence: "The celebration lasted all night."
• Combined correctly: "The team won the championship. The celebration lasted all night."

Method 2: Use a semicolon

• Combined correctly: "The team won the championship; the celebration lasted all night."

Method 3: Use a comma + coordinating conjunction (and, but, or, nor, for, yet, so)

• Combined correctly: "The team won the championship, and the celebration lasted all night."

What you CANNOT do:

• Join with just a comma: "The team won the championship, the celebration lasted all night." (comma splice)
• Join with no punctuation: "The team won the championship the celebration lasted all night." (run-on)

In our question:

• First complete sentence: "In 2017, artists Isabel and Ruben Toledo redesigned the costumes and sets for The Miami City Ballet's production of The Nutcracker."
• Second complete sentence: "According to reviewers, the Toledos' designs helped infuse the production with elements of Miami's Latin American culture."
• Correct separation: Use a period to create two separate sentences (Choice D)