William,

I would agree with your colleagues.  The semicolon acts as a conjunctive adverb like "therefore", initiating a resultant clause.  A colon would be more appropriate if there were some illustration of the assigned reading and lab work.  For instance, ....as well as the assigned reading and lab work, make it clear that I am in the wrong class: the readings are highly laden with jargon and the the lab work assumes a high level of knowledge. Therefore, I have decided to drop the course.

Thanks for posting,

Til



Til Turner
Languages and Literature
Northern Virginia Community College


From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar [[log in to unmask]] on behalf of Jason Jones [[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Friday, January 16, 2015 3:19 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: How to Punctuate

Here is a practice sentence from Martha Kolln's Rhetorical Grammar:

"The lectures in our astronomy class as well as the assigned reading and the lab work make it clear that I am in the wrong class I have decided to drop the course."

I believe that only a colon or semicolon is needed between class and I. My colleagues in the English department, however, have all punctuated the sentence this way:

"The lectures in our astronomy class, as well as the assigned reading and the lab work, make it clear that I am in the wrong class; I have decided to drop the course."

Any help would be appreciated!
--
Regards, 



William Jason Jones
English Teacher (English III & Comp I/II)
Writing Center Director
Independence Jr./High School
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