Where does the semicolon go in this sentence...?

Question

William Penn Adair Rogers was born in 1879 in Oologah, Indian Territory, which is now Oklahoma, and he spent his childhood on his father's ranch, a prosperous holding of about sixty thousand acres.


I'm thinking take out the and, and place the semicolon there, is that correct?

It's from my English Book, it's a lesson on Semicolons, and that sentence just seemed dodgy.

Answer 1

Commas in general are placed in pairs. If you take out the word
"and" you will also have to remove the comma. Try this:

...and he spent his childhood on his father's ranch ─ a prosperous holding of about sixty thousand acres.

As you may see I left out the use of the semicolon.

Answer 2

Yes:
William Penn Adair Rogers was born in 1879 in Oologah, Indian Territory, which is now Oklahoma; he spent his childhood on his father's ranch, a prosperous holding of about sixty thousand acres.

Answer 3

William Penn Adair Rogers was born in 1879 in Oologah, Indian Territory, which is now Oklahoma. He spent his childhood on his father's ranch; a prosperous holding of about sixty thousand acres.

Answer 4

Oh my gosh. I remember having to do sentences like that every single day in my English class when I was a freshman and sophomore (of course not always with semi-colons.) We'd work on semi-colons alone for like a week and it would get the point across and kids would understand, but after that we'd never want to see another semi colon in our lives.

Anyway, you're right about the placement of it. Just remember what they mentioned before: don't ramble in your sentences(like I always tend to do) otherewise it'll make it really easy for someone to lose interest. I know you're not dealing with stuff like this now, but you will. If you ever need help with English you can Email or IM me (MissFancyPants5@ yahoo/hotmail.com I'm looking into being an English major, so I would love to help you out!

Answer 5

you are able to in basic terms take out the semicolon and replace it with a comma. "I drove to the large automobile parking zone of a semi-abandoned determining to purchase mall, which proved to be the optimal area for parking." A semicolon is in basic terms needed in between 2 finished ideas or concepts, which skill each and each and every sentence can stand on that is own.

Answer 6

There are 33 words in that sentence. It’s to long. If a sentence has more than 25 words, than it becomes incomprehensible. Always remember that.

Read it out loud to yourself. Does it make sense? It’s to long.

Break it up. If you teacher wrote that sentence than you should be teaching him.

I think the "and" is where the semi colon should go too but I would not structure it that way.

Remember it’s hard to read when you have to re-read. That’s what Dot Bowen always says and she's the best English teacher that there ever was.

Answer 7

I would take out the "and" and make a new sentence.

Answer 8

yes

Answer 9

yeah that's the only reasonable place it could go

Answer 10

that is correct