Quote:
Jane and William will represent our school at the modern arts convention, for their creations have been outstanding this semester.
(A) convention, for their creations have been outstanding this semester
(B) convention, their creations in this having been outstanding this semester
(C) convention; their creations this semester have been outstanding
(D) convention; they having been outstanding in their creations this semester
(E) convention, for they have this semester done outstanding creations
I had trouble with this at first. A and C are both grammatically correct. You can connect two independent and related sentences with either a semi-colon or a comma and a FANBOY (the comma can be optional depending on how it affects the meaning). Here each clause in A and C is independent. For is the correct conjunction because it shows purpose or why (basically, "for" functions identically to "because," except that "for" is for connecting 2 independent clauses instead of a dependent clause to an independent clause).
So why A or C if each construction is okay? Let's look at the differences:
(A) convention, for their creations have been outstanding
this semester(C) convention; their creations
this semester have been outstanding
Whenever something moves around, ALWAYS consider how it affects the meaning because it is often a modifier issue. Here, what is "this semester" modifying?
In A, it modifies the verb "have been" and tells us when the creations were outstanding. This is an improper meaning because it implies that the creations existed before this semester and now are outstanding (think of a sports player that is having a good season this year). It is odd to say that art was outstanding during a specific time period - art would be either outstanding or not and that wouldn't change.
In C, it is a restrictive modifier for "their creations" and tells us that their creations that came into existence this semester are outstanding. Therefore, C has the correct intended meaning.