Errors in the use of punctuation marks - Semicolons and Colons
Answer
Daniel Boone was born in Pennsylvania; his parents were English Quakers.
Leftover turkey can be used in turkey tetrazzini, turkey burgers, and turkey chowder.
In 1819, the Baptists founded Hamilton Literary and Theological Seminary; which was renamed Colgate University when soap maker William Colgate donated a large sum of money to the school.
Star Trek: The Motion Picture was criticized for too many special effects; in contrast, Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan focused more on plot and characters.
Again, if you have posted corrected sentences, you've done well.
In that last sentence, make sure those movie titles are either italicized or underlined.
To identify errors in the use of punctuation marks, specifically semicolons and colons, let's analyze each sentence.
1. "Daniel Boone was born in Pennsylvania; his parents were English Quakers."
In this sentence, the semicolon is used correctly to separate two closely related independent clauses. The punctuation mark is appropriate because it creates a stronger separation between the two ideas compared to using a comma alone.
2. "Leftover turkey can be used in turkey tetrazzini, turkey burgers, and turkey chowder."
This sentence does not contain any errors in the use of punctuation. It correctly uses commas to separate items in a series.
3. "In 1819, the Baptists founded Hamilton Literary and Theological Seminary; which was renamed Colgate University when soap maker William Colgate donated a large sum of money to the school."
In this sentence, there is an error in the use of the semicolon. The semicolon should be replaced with a comma because the second part of the sentence starting with "which" is a dependent clause that provides additional information about the subject.
4. "Star Trek: The Motion Picture was criticized for too many special effects; in contrast, Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan focused more on the plot and characters."
This sentence is correctly using a colon to introduce a list of items. However, there is an error in the use of the semicolon. Instead of using a semicolon before "in contrast," a comma would be more appropriate to connect the contrasting elements in the sentence.
To summarize, in sentence three, a comma should replace the semicolon before the word "which." In sentence four, a comma should replace the semicolon before "in contrast."