Final answer:
The correctly punctuated sentence is: 'Fish spend their entire lives in water; the study of fish is called "ichthyology".' It correctly uses a semicolon to join two related independent clauses. Effective sentence revision often includes focusing on the doer and action, as well as editing for conciseness by removing unnecessary words.
Step-by-step explanation:
The sentence punctuated correctly is: Fish spend their entire lives in water; the study of fish is called "ichthyology". This sentence uses a semicolon correctly to join two closely related independent clauses. The other sentences contain punctuation errors, such as comma splices, which occur when a comma is incorrectly used to join two independent clauses without the proper conjunction.
Revising sentences to enhance clarity often involves identifying the doer and the action in a sentence, which makes the sentence more engaging and easier for readers to relate to. For example, changing a passive construction like There is one fish, the Mudskipper, that spends time on land to an active one, like The Mudskipper is one fish that spends time on land, can help eliminate wordiness and make the sentence more direct and impactful.
When editing sentences for conciseness, it's important to cut needless words and focus on maintaining the effectiveness of the sentence. Sometimes, a brief construction delivers the message more powerfully than a longer one, depending on the intended impact and the context of the writing.