Question

Brendan wrote the following sentence to explain how the game of checkers was solved:

In 1989, a group of computer scientists created a computer program called Chinook consequently; the program's algorithm finally became unbeatable in 2007.

What is the semicolon error in Brendan's sentence?

The second part of the sentence is not an independent clause and cannot stand alone.
The semicolon should appear before the conjunctive adverb consequently and the conjunctive adverb should be followed by a comma.
The sentence should include multiple semicolons to separate items in a serial list.
The word after the semicolon should be capitalized because it is a proper noun.

Answer 1

The correct punctuation would be: 'In 1989, a group of computer scientists created a computer program called Chinook; consequently, the program's algorithm finally became unbeatable in 2007.' The error in the sentence is the misuse of a semicolon; it should be before 'consequently' and followed by a comma to correctly join two independent clauses. The correct statement is second.

Step-by-step explanation:

• The semicolon error in Brendan's sentence is that the semicolon should appear before the conjunctive adverb 'consequently,' and the conjunctive adverb should be followed by a comma.
• The correct punctuation would be: 'In 1989, a group of computer scientists created a computer program called Chinook; consequently, the program's algorithm finally became unbeatable in 2007.'
• The semicolon is used to join two independent clauses that are closely related, while the conjunctive adverb followed by a comma helps provide a smooth transition between the two ideas.