semicolons
One problem involves dealing with other coworkers; a workplace relationship is hard to keep secret and those involved in a close friendship or romance are nearly always the subject of gossip . <--- is this sentence correctly punctuated ?
1 answer 
No. You actually have three independent clauses in your sentence. The first two are correctly joined by the semicolon following "coworkers." You have joined the second and third with a conjunction but have not provided the necessary comma. The comma should follow "secret." Here are your three independent clauses:
One problem involves dealing with other coworkers.
A workplace relationship is hard to keep secret.
Those involved in a close friendship or romance are nearly always the subject of gossip.
Most teachers/editors/readers dislike a sentence with three independent clauses. It is too long and complext for easy reading. Consider rewriting it to make two sentences.
| link comment |
answered Sep 11 '12 at 00:08
Jeff Pribyl
Grammarly Fellow
|
