Which sentence is correctly punctuated?
A)Many companies now sell their products and services online, on the other hand, some companies focus exclusively on in-house sales.
B)Many companies now sell their products and services online; on the other hand, some companies focus exclusively on in-house sales.
C)Many companies now sell their products and services online; on the other hand, Some companies focus exclusively on in-house sales.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

In this sentence, the two clauses "Many companies now sell their products and services online" and "on the other hand, some companies focus exclusively on in-house sales" are two independent clauses that could stand alone as separate sentences. Therefore, they should be separated with a semicolon followed by a coordinating conjunction or a period. Option B correctly uses a semicolon to separate the two clauses and adds a coordinating conjunction "on the other hand" to link them. This makes the sentence clear and grammatically correct. Option A is incorrect because it uses a comma splice to connect two independent clauses. Option C is incorrect because it should have capital "S" in "Some companies" and still uses a semicolon followed by a capital letter, which is an incorrect use of the semicolon.

Which Sentence Is Correctly Punctuated