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I'm not sure how to present this sentence. I'm leaning towards semi-colon, but am not 100% (or even 70%) sure.

"It was the final step in a process which spanned the entirety of my senior year; my senior thesis was complete."

or

"It was the final step in a process which spanned the entirety of my senior year, my senior thesis was complete.

The latter is a comma splice. The former is grammatically correct.

Why make it confusing? Go with two sentences.

Satoren wrote:Why make it confusing? Go with two sentences.

Obviously I considered that (as it would have avoided certain grammatical embarassment on TLS). However, it flowed better as one sentence. Splitting it into two sentences separates the thought, when I wanted that particular mention to be considered in one thought.

Honestly, I think that redheaded step child of punctuation -- the colon -- would fit well here

semi-colon is the only option; a comma is grammatically incorrect.

A comma would be incorrect. A semi-colon would be correct. A colon would be good.

Also, it should almost certainly be a "that" and not a "which." You mean it in a restrictive sense.

thsmthcrmnl wrote:A comma would be incorrect. A semi-colon would be correct. A colon would be good.

Also, it should almost certainly be a "that" and not a "which." You mean it in a restrictive sense.

I'm awful at grammar.

I think your grammatical problem comes from the awkwardness of your sentence. It seems like you are conjoining two clauses that aren't necessarily related. In the first clause you talk about a "final step" that spanned the entirety of your senior year, but instead of identifying what this final step is, which would seem to follow logically, you abruptly change focus to the completion of your senior thesis.

I can see how these two things might be related, but to me, they need to be tied together better, or given their own sentences. Of course, I can't see how the sentence fits with the rest of the paper, so take my advice with a grain of salt.

:

jonas586 wrote:I think your grammatical problem comes from the awkwardness of your sentence. It seems like you are conjoining two clauses that aren't necessarily related. In the first clause you talk about a "final step" that spanned the entirety of your senior year, but instead of identifying what this final step is, which would seem to follow logically, you abruptly change focus to the completion of your senior thesis.

I can see how these two things might be related, but to me, they need to be tied together better, or given their own sentences. Of course, I can't see how the sentence fits with the rest of the paper, so take my advice with a grain of salt.

You are referring to a final step you must have previously identified. IMHO you should change "which" for "that" and as a second sentence, write: "My senior thesis was now complete."

Just MHO, but why not ditch your slippery "to be" verb "was" and use an active verb instead?

How about something like:

"With it, I completed the final step in the year-long creation of my senior thesis."

Now, you may have chosen the original sentence structure in order to highlight the phrase "my senior thesis was complete." If additional flourish is desired, perhaps you might insert "had at last" or "finally" before "completed"?

yeff wrote:Just MHO, but why not ditch your slippery "to be" verb "was" and use an active verb instead?

How about something like:

"With it, I completed the final step in the year-long creation of my senior thesis."

Now, you may have chosen the original sentence structure in order to highlight the phrase "my senior thesis was complete." If additional flourish is desired, perhaps you might insert "had at last" or "finally" before "completed"?

+1

OneSixtySix wrote:I'm not sure how to present this sentence. I'm leaning towards semi-colon, but am not 100% (or even 70%) sure.

"It was the final step of (sounds better) a process which spanned the entirety of my senior year; my senior thesis was complete."

or

"It was the final step in a process which spanned the entirety of my senior year, my senior thesis was complete.

1st one is correct. dump the 2nd.