A question about punctuating a transition tests where a linking word belongs and which marks it needs. Cover the transition and split the text, then ask whether each side can stand alone. Two full sentences need a period or semicolon on one side and a comma on the other; inside one sentence, use paired commas. To test where it belongs, try the transition at the next sentence’s start. If its meaning doesn’t fit there, try it at the first sentence’s end.
Hints
- Hint 1
Cover however and ask whether each side can stand alone. Look for who each side is about and the main verb that says what they do.
- Hint 2
Read the opening sentence and both parts around the blank, taking however to mean but or in contrast. Check which ideas contrast to decide which sentence the transition belongs to.
Step-by-step
Cover the transition, then test its side
Step 1Find the full sentences
Cover however, the transition linking the ideas, and split at the blank to test the punctuation. Most researchers in the field stop has the subject researchers and main verb stop, with routes completing what they map. Luo goes further has its own subject, Luo, and main verb, goes. These are two full sentences, so a period or semicolon must separate them; however alone can’t do that job.
- Step 2
Reject the marks that break the sentences
Which versions break the conventions of Standard English? Commas on both sides of however leave a comma splice, meaning two full sentences joined by only a comma. Semicolons on both sides leave however standing alone, even though that word has no subject or main verb. A comma goes on one side of this transition and the sentence break on the other, so the remaining question is which sentence gets however.
- Step 3
Read the contrast and place the marks
Where does however, meaning but or in contrast, fit? Most researchers stop at mapping migration routes, but Luo goes further by studying songs as well, so Luo does more than the other researchers. Ending the researchers’ sentence with however would point back to the opening, where Luo tracks the migratory patterns of humpback whales; that opening also describes migration tracking, so it gives no contrast. Put the semicolon before however to separate the full sentences and the comma after it to set off the transition, giving routes; however,. Choice D.