Question

Shakespeare famously wrote, “the course of true love never did run smooth.”
Choose the option that best corrects the sentence.
a. NO CHANGE
b. Shakespeare famously wrote, “the course of true love never did run smooth.”
c. Shakespeare famously wrote, “The course of True Love never did run smooth.”
d. Shakespeare famously wrote, “The course of true love never did run smooth.”

Answer 1

Hint: Look at the given sentence and read it out loud. This will help you understand what kind of sentence it is. Look for grammatical anomalies, and correct them. Then, choose the option that has the correct punctuation.

Complete answer: Punctuation is the use of spacing, conventional signs, and certain typographical devices as aids to the understanding and correct reading of the written text, whether read silently or aloud and it is extremely important in the English language, as different punctuation can change the meaning of the same sentence. The given sentence in indirect speech, which means that it includes the exact quote that someone has said. The exact quote should always be surrounded by inverted commas. The actual quote is a simple declarative sentence, so it should end in a simple full stop.
Now, we know what punctuations we need to have. Let’s look at the different options:
a. NO CHANGE - We already know that this is an incorrect option as the given sentence has minimal punctuation and it is not considered complete. So, this is not the required answer.
b. Shakespeare famously wrote, “the course of true love never did run smooth.” - In this sentence, the first letter of the quote is not capitalised. This is not the required answer. So, this is an incorrect option.
c. Shakespeare famously wrote, “The course of True Love never did run smooth.” - In this sentence, random letters have been capitalised. This is not the required answer. So, this is an incorrect option.
d. Shakespeare famously wrote, “The course of true love never did run smooth.” - This sentence contains inverted commas around the quote, a full stop at the end, and the correct capitalisation. This is the required answer. So, (d) is the correct option.

Note: The first word of the sentence is always capitalised, and inverted commas are used when the sentence is supposed to be in direct speech. And there should always be a full
stop at the end of a declarative sentence.