A) income; and forty-four percent in 1984
You cannot start a sentence with a conjunction I think.
What was forty-four percent?

(B) income; in 1984 the figure was forty-four percent
Okay

(C) income, and in 1984 forty-four percent
What was forty-four percent?

(D) income, forty-four percent in 1984 was the figure
ACKWARD

(E) income that rose to forty-four percent in 1984

What rose to forty-four percent - Is it the income or the Mortgage payment. This implies income rost to forty-four percent.

In 1973 mortgage payments represented twenty-one percent of an average thirty-year-old male's income; and forty-four percent in 1984.

(A) income; and forty-four percent in 1984 - Grammatically, you can start a sentence with a conjunction; it's just considered poor form. Either way, a semi-colon is used to separate two independent clauses while indicating a relationship between them.

(B) income; in 1984 the figure was forty-four percent - This is a grammatically correct sentence. You can safely assume that the figure discussed relates to the mortgage payments, since "of an average thirty-year-old male's income" is just one long prepositional phrase.

(C) income, and in 1984 forty-four percent - This is a disruptive comma. In order to place a comma before the "and" (or any conjunction, for that matter) in a sentence, it must be dividing two independent clauses.

(D) income, forty-four percent in 1984 was the figure - This is a comma splice. Because the clause after the comma is independent, the sentence needs either a conjunction to separate the two clauses (with a comma - see above), or there need to be two sentences.

(E) income that rose to forty-four percent in 1984 - "That" is a modifier that modifies "income" and not the mortgage payment. In this case, the "that" alters the meaning of the sentence altogether.

Hope this helps!

You can introduce the figure in B because of the semi-colon. A semi-colon generally indicates a closer elationship with the previous clause than a period does. Take for example: He ate 22 moon pies; the sheer quantity was disgusting. Another example (just to demonstrate how a semi-colon can create ties between two random thoughts): Sarah's calves are sore; she wears high-heels every day.

As for the rest of your question, I'm not sure what you mean about C in the sense of an elipse...

C is incorrect because you can't put a comma in the middle of sentence unless it serves a specific function (e.g. lists, appositives, non-essential clauses/phrases, etc). In C, the comma sets off a dependent, essential phrase - two circumstances in which commas shouldn't be used.

Did that clarify?

Thanks for the great explanation! For C I was thinking it may mean this:
In 1973 mortgage payments represented twenty-one percent of an average thirty-year-old male's income, and in 1984 (it represented) forty-four percent.

Would this be correct?

This means you have mastered it now, correct?

ah, let me rephrase it.

I cannot master about ellipsis even until now.

I still haven't mastered it till now.
I have yet to master it even till now.

Hmmm not sure what is the best way to say this.

I concur with Hong on the possible use of Ellipsis to justify C being correct. Can somebody clarify this?

I still get confused with ellipsis and parallelism sometimes....

B

A/C are out as they're not independent clauses. B is best because they're dependent clauses, the second clause refers to the first but can stand alone as a sentence.

It's like this sentence

In 2007, I was a poor student, having literally no income; now, in 2012, my income exceeds $400 million.

Break it up:


In 2007, I was a poor student, having literally no income

now, in 2012, my income exceeds $400 million.

You can make two sentences out of it, so it's valid. But if you had:


In 2007, I was a poor student, having literally no income; now, in 2012, it exceeds $400 million.

Is wrong:

In 2007, I was a poor student, having literally no income

now, in 2012, it exceeds $400 million.

What exceeds $400M? It's not an independent clause.


ok im tired im going to bed, it's 6:15am lol. GN