ShmoopTube

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Here's your shmoop du jour, brought to you by picnics. The preferred dining venue of

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4 out of 5 litterers.

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It rained heavily; during the afternoon we managed to have our picnic anyway.

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Honestly, a picnic in the rain doesn't sound like such a bad idea.

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It's a little known fact that

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turkey sandwiches taste best drenched in rainwater.

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Anyway, this sentence has some issues. That semicolon is in the wrong place at the wrong time.

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So, where SHOULD it go? Remember the purpose of semicolons? They separate two clauses like

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a period, only they indicate a closer relationship than a period would.

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These are the three places in the sentence the semicolon could be placed.

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Picture it like you would a period, and read the sentence with that pause. Go ahead, pause

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the video for a sec and read them out loud.

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As it stands, option 2 seems to be the best.

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"It rained heavily during the afternoon" and "We managed to have our picnic anyway" are

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both independent clauses, so the semicolon goes between the two.

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But what about the original sentence? Well, if the semicolon goes here, both sentences

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should be able to stand alone.

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But this would require a comma after "afternoon," so that the dependent clause "during the afternoon"

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is properly attached to the independent clause afterwards.

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However, there's not a comma there, so the second part of that option is grammatically

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incorrect. Now we're left with C and D, which both use

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the semicolon in the correct spot. The only difference is the comma after managed.

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Is that really necessary? Nope! The sentence sounded fine without it, and it's actually

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grammatically incorrect if you add it. We're left with C. It uses the semicolon to

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split up the clauses, and doesn't misuse a comma like D did.

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Now we can get back to our soggy sandwiches and diluted lemonade. Yummers.

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