Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass first appeared in 1855 as a slim collection of twelve poems, but Whitman would revise...

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

• Walt Whitman's Leaves of Grass first appeared in 1855
  • as a slim collection of twelve poems,
• but Whitman would revise and expand it substantially
  • over the next four decades.

• These extensive changes [?]
  • the addition of hundreds of new poems,
  • the removal of some existing ones,
  • and the insertion of prefatory material,
• reflected the poet's evolving literary perspective
  • and experience of the US Civil War.

Understanding the Meaning

The first sentence gives us context:

• Walt Whitman's book "Leaves of Grass" started small in 1855
  • just twelve poems
• But he kept revising and expanding it for the next 40 years

Now the second sentence talks about those revisions:

• "These extensive changes"
  • referring back to all that revising and expanding

This is where we have the blank.

Let's look at the choices:

• A. changes, including
• B. changes would include
• C. changes included
• D. changes, include

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

After the blank, we get a list of three things:

• "the addition of hundreds of new poems"
• "the removal of some existing ones"
• "and the insertion of prefatory material"

Then the sentence continues:

• "reflected the poet's evolving literary perspective and experience of the US Civil War"

Now let's understand the complete structure:

• The sentence starts with "These extensive changes"
  • That's our subject - what the sentence is about

• Then there's that list (addition, removal, insertion)
  • This is telling us WHAT the changes consisted of
  • Giving us specific examples of the changes

• Then we get "reflected the poet's evolving literary perspective..."
  • This is the main point the sentence is making
  • It's saying these changes REFLECTED something about the poet

What do we notice about the structure here?

• "reflected" is the main verb - the primary action of the sentence
  • The sentence is fundamentally saying: these changes reflected...

• The list in the middle (addition, removal, insertion) is descriptive
  • It's explaining what the changes were
  • But it's not the main action - it's supplementary information

So we need something that:

• Introduces this descriptive list
• Keeps "reflected" as the main verb doing the primary action
• Properly sets off this descriptive information with punctuation

The correct answer is A: changes, including

This gives us: "These extensive changes, including the addition..., reflected..."

• "including" introduces the examples of what the changes consisted of
• The comma structure sets off this descriptive information
• "reflected" remains the main verb carrying the sentence's primary meaning

GRAMMAR CONCEPT APPLIED

Using Participial Phrases to Add Descriptive Information Within a Sentence

When you have a main point to make (your main subject and verb), but you want to add descriptive or exemplifying information in the middle, you can use a participial phrase (an "-ing" word form, called a participle in grammar terms) set off by commas:

Pattern: Subject, [participle + descriptive details], main verb

Example 1:

• Without description: The reforms improved working conditions.
• With participial phrase: The reforms, including minimum wage increases and safety requirements, improved working conditions.
• Subject: "The reforms"
• Descriptive part: "including minimum wage increases and safety requirements"
• Main verb: "improved"

Example 2:

• Without description: The evidence supported the hypothesis.
• With participial phrase: The evidence, consisting of three independent studies, supported the hypothesis.
• Subject: "The evidence"
• Descriptive part: "consisting of three independent studies"
• Main verb: "supported"

In our question:

• Subject: "These extensive changes"
• Descriptive part: "including the addition of hundreds of new poems, the removal of some existing ones, and the insertion of prefatory material"
• Main verb: "reflected"

The participial phrase with "including" lets us specify what the changes were while keeping "reflected" as the main action of the sentence. The commas mark this middle section as supplementary information.