URGENT: What would be the proper punctuation for this sentence?

College Essays
1

<p>"I studied persistently, pursued my interests, became active in my community; but ultimately, I upheld...."</p>

<p>My teacher inserted that semi-colon there, but it seems a bit out of place to me. If anyone can help me punctuate it correctly, I'd really appreciate it, thanks.</p>

2

<p>I agree with you versus your teacher: that semicolon should be a comma. Reason: the semicolon looks out of place, as you say. More elaborate reason: you don’t use a semicolon when there’s a coordinating conjunction. “But” is a coordinating conjunction. I think I’d drop the comma after “ultimately” too.</p>

3

<p>Wow that is exactly how I had it before, thanks!</p>

4

<p>See here:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.grammar-monster.com/lessons/semicolons_before_conjunctions.htm[/url]”>http://www.grammar-monster.com/lessons/semicolons_before_conjunctions.htm&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p><a href=“expressions - rule of thumb for 'however' in the middle of the sentence? - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange”>http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/59594/rule-of-thumb-for-however-in-the-middle-of-the-sentence&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

5

<p>Ahh now I’m confused. The first website link says that I would use a semi-colon.</p>

6

<p>The first website says you can, but that it sounds outdated. If the sentence is unclear without the semicolon, go ahead and use it. Your sentence is perfectly clear without the semicolon.</p>

<p>If you look at the examples lower down on the linked page, you’ll see that they’re all sentences with a complex series of clauses or with commas used in various, potentially confusing, ways. Your sentence doesn’t have that problem. It’s very easy to tell where the “but” clause is going sans semicolon.</p>

7

<p>You need to read the explanation about co-ordinate conjunction on the right side (comma is used) and independent clauses on the left side (semicolon is used).</p>