Luci Tapahonso is the inaugural poet laureate of the Navajo Nation. Her book Sáanii Dahataal/The Women Are Singing-a combination of...

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

• Luci Tapahonso is the inaugural poet laureate of the Navajo Nation.
• Her book Sáanii Dahataal/The Women Are Singing
• —a combination of fiction and memoir,
• poetry and prose [?]
• serves as a testament to her versatility as a writer.

Understanding the Meaning

The first sentence gives us background:

• Luci Tapahonso is the inaugural poet laureate of the Navajo Nation.
  • This tells us who she is and her important position.

Now the second sentence talks about one of her books:

• 'Her book Sáanii Dahataal/The Women Are Singing'
  • This is the subject - the book we're discussing.

Then we get additional description that starts with an em dash:

• '—a combination of fiction and memoir, poetry and prose [blank]'
  • This describes what kinds of writing are in the book.

This is where we have the blank. Let's look at the choices:

• A. prose;
• B. prose (no punctuation)
• C. prose,
• D. prose—

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

The sentence continues: 'serves as a testament to her versatility as a writer.'

Now let's understand what the complete structure is telling us:

• If we took out that descriptive phrase, the main sentence would be:
  • 'Her book Sáanii Dahataal/The Women Are Singing serves as a testament to her versatility as a writer.'
  • Subject: Her book
  • Main verb: serves
  • This is a complete thought on its own.

• The phrase 'a combination of fiction and memoir, poetry and prose' is INSERTED into the middle of that main sentence
  • It gives us extra information about what the book contains
  • It starts with an em dash: '—a combination...'

What do we notice about the structure here?

• When you insert extra information into the MIDDLE of a sentence using an em dash, you need TWO em dashes - they work as a matched pair
  • One em dash opens the interruption
  • Another em dash closes it before the main sentence continues
  • They work like parentheses that come in pairs

• The pattern is:
  • [Main sentence begins] —[interrupting information]— [main sentence continues]

• In our sentence:
  • 'Her book' —[description of what's in it]— 'serves as a testament...'

So we need the closing em dash after 'prose' to complete the pair and properly close the interrupting description.

The correct answer is D: prose—

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Using Paired Em Dashes to Insert Information

When you want to insert additional information into the middle of a sentence using em dashes (called parenthetical dashes in grammar terms), they must come in pairs - one to open the interruption and one to close it:

Pattern:

• [Beginning of main sentence] —[interrupting additional information]— [continuation of main sentence]

Example 1:

• Main sentence: "The discovery changed our understanding of history."
• With interruption: "The discovery—made by accident in a forgotten archive—changed our understanding of history."
• Opening dash: after "discovery"
• Closing dash: after "archive"
• Main sentence continues: "changed our understanding..."

Example 2:

• Main sentence: "The movie received critical acclaim."
• With interruption: "The movie—a bold reimagining of a classic story—received critical acclaim."
• Opening dash: after "movie"
• Closing dash: after "story"
• Main sentence continues: "received critical acclaim"

In our question:

• Main sentence: "Her book Sáanii Dahataal/The Women Are Singing serves as a testament to her versatility as a writer."
• With interruption: "Her book Sáanii Dahataal/The Women Are Singing—a combination of fiction and memoir, poetry and prose—serves as a testament to her versatility as a writer."
• Opening dash: after the book title
• Closing dash: after "prose" (Choice D)
• Main sentence continues: "serves as a testament..."

The paired em dashes set off the interrupting description from the main flow of the sentence, and both dashes are essential to show where the interruption begins and ends.