Question

which is the best use of punctuation?

• pole vaulting—and shot put—are olympic track and field events
• the industrial revolution (a period between 1760 and 1860) brought many changes to manufacturing
• students will study economics, and history throughout the course.
• the show (was a spectacular event) that people will remember for many subsequent years

Explanation:

• For the first option, em dashes are misused here as "pole vaulting" and "shot put" are both Olympic track and field events and don't need the em - dash interruption in this way. A better way could be "Pole vaulting and shot put are Olympic track and field events".
• In the second option, the parentheses are used correctly to provide additional information (the time period of the Industrial Revolution) without disrupting the main sentence.
• For the third option, the comma before "and" is incorrect. When listing two items ("economics" and "history"), we don't use a comma before "and" in this context. It should be "Students will study economics and history throughout the course".
• For the fourth option, the content in the parentheses is incorrect grammatically. The sentence structure is disrupted, and it should be "The show, a spectacular event, that people will remember for many subsequent years" (using commas for non - restrictive clause) or rephrased properly.

Answer:

The Industrial Revolution (a period between 1750 and 1860) brought many changes to manufacturing