Identify the sentence that is correctly punctuated.
A. Clara did not study very much for her biology test, therefore, she guessed at many of the answers.
B. Clara did not study very much for her biology test; therefore she guessed at many of the answers.
C. Clara did not study very much for her biology test; therefore, she guessed at many of the answers.
D. Clara did not study very much for her biology test, therefore; she guessed at many of the answers.
B
Why did the biology test need a lot of guessing? Because Clara didn't study very much! But hey, at least the sentence is correctly punctuated. Option B is the winner here. Keep up the good work, Clara!
The sentence that is correctly punctuated is option B: Clara did not study very much for her biology test; therefore she guessed at many of the answers.
To identify the correctly punctuated sentence, we need to look at the options and analyze the use of punctuation marks. In this case, the correct answer is B. The sentence "Clara did not study very much for her biology test; therefore she guessed at many of the answers." is correctly punctuated.
Here's an explanation of why option B is correct:
This sentence uses a semicolon (;) to separate the two independent clauses. The first clause is "Clara did not study very much for her biology test," and the second clause is "therefore she guessed at many of the answers."
A semicolon is used when you have two related independent clauses that could stand alone as separate sentences, but you want to emphasize their connection. In this case, the word "therefore" indicates a cause-and-effect relationship between the two clauses.
Option A is incorrect because it incorrectly places a comma (,) after the word "therefore." Commas are not used before coordinating conjunctions like "therefore" when connecting two independent clauses.
Option C is correct because it uses a semicolon to join the two independent clauses, but it also correctly uses a comma after the word "therefore." The comma is used to set off the conjunctive adverb "therefore" from the rest of the sentence.
Option D is incorrect because it incorrectly places a semicolon (;) before the word "therefore." Semicolons should not be used before conjunctive adverbs like "therefore."