The university's comprehensive student success initiative focuses on three core areas: improving academic advising services, expanding mental health r...

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

The university's comprehensive student success initiative focuses on three core areas: improving academic advising services, expanding mental health resources, and ensuring adequate financial support [?]

Where [?] = ; or , or nothing or :

Understanding the Meaning

Let's read from the beginning:

The sentence starts with a main statement:

• 'The university's comprehensive student success initiative focuses on three core areas:'
  • There's a colon here, which signals that a list is coming - we're about to see what those three core areas are.

Now we get the three areas listed:

1. 'improving academic advising services,'
2. 'expanding mental health resources, and'
3. 'ensuring adequate financial support____'

This is where we have the blank.

Let's look at the choices:

• A adds a semicolon
• B adds a comma
• C adds nothing
• D adds a colon

To see what works here, let's think about where we are in the sentence!

What do we notice about the structure here?

• This is a standard list format:
  • We have three parallel items (three things the initiative focuses on)
  • The items are separated by commas
  • The word "and" appears before the final item
  • We've now reached the END of that final item

• In a standard list, the punctuation pattern is:
  • Item 1, Item 2, and Item 3
  • After the third item, the list simply ends - no additional punctuation is needed

So we need no punctuation after "support" - the list just concludes here.

The correct answer is C.

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Punctuation in a Standard List (Series)

When you list three or more items in a sentence, follow this punctuation pattern:

Basic pattern:

• Item 1, Item 2, and Item 3.
  • Commas separate the items
  • "And" (or "or") appears before the final item
  • No punctuation after the final item (the list simply ends)

Example 1:

• The recipe calls for flour, sugar, and eggs.
  • NOT: flour, sugar, and eggs,
  • NOT: flour, sugar, and eggs;

Example 2:

• The conference will address climate change, economic development, and public health.
  • The list ends naturally after "public health"

In this question:

• The initiative focuses on three core areas:
  • improving academic advising services, (comma after item 1)
  • expanding mental health resources, and (comma before "and")
  • ensuring adequate financial support (nothing after item 3 - list ends)

The key principle: After completing a list, don't add extra punctuation. The list simply concludes, and the sentence ends with a period (which is understood, not part of the choices being tested).