Avoiding the most common sentence faults helps you maintain professional credibility and craft more effective messages. Select the correct version of each pair of the following sentences. a. Local markets have become saturated companies now look to other countries for further expansion. b. Local markets have become saturated, so companies now look to other countries for further expansion. c. If you can write well; you can represent your company well. d. If you can write well, you can represent your company well. e. Employees today are hired for their knowledge as well as their ability to learn new things. f. Employees today are hired for their knowledge. As well as their ability to learn new things. g. The communication process works fluidly. h. It moves from one step to the next often without pause. i. The communication process works fluidly it moves from one step to the next often without pause. j. Convey your ideas clearly; use precise wording. k. Convey your ideas clearly, use precise wording.

The correct version of each of the pair of the sentences are:

1. Local markets have become saturated, so companies now look to other countries for further expansion. (b)

2.  If you can write well, you can represent your company well. (d)

3. Employees today are hired for their knowledge as well as their ability to learn new things. (e.)

4. The communication process works fluidly. It moves from one step to the next often without pause. (h.)

5 Convey your ideas clearly; use precise wording. (j.)

Explanation:

I will explain each of the choices one after the other.

1. the statement here can be divided into two parts; 'Local markets have become saturated' and 'companies now look to other countries for further expansion'. These two statements are two different ideas that are joined together in one sentence, hence to show that they are separate ideas, and to make sense, a reader has to pause after the first statement, a 'comma' (,) is used after the first statement to show this pause and to join the second statement, making the sentence more meaningful.

2. the statement here is made up of one dependent clause and one independent clause. A dependent clause are group of words that has a subject and a verb, but do not express a complete thought. The dependent clause in this sentence is 'If you can write well', while the independent clause is a statement that can stand alone and make complete sense. In this example, it is, ' you can represent your company well'. In order to join a dependent clause and an independent clause in a sentence, a 'comma' is used, as opposed to a semi-colon (;), used to join two independent clauses in a sentence.

3 A full stop is used to begin a sentence, of a completely new idea, from the preceding sentence. In this example, the second statement ' as well as their ability to learn new things' is a continuation of the first statement 'Employees today are hired for their knowledge' hence, both phrases have similar idea, making it wrong to use a 'full stop' (.) in the middle of the sentence.

4. A 'full stop' is the right punctuation to use in this sentence because, the sentence is made up of two independent phrases 'The communication process works fluidly' and 'it moves from one step to the next often without pause' and can be separate sentences, hence when used in a single sentence, a pause must be observed after the first statement, so writing both sentences together without observing a pause is wrong and the statement does not make sense, therefore, a 'full stop' there is to observe the pause.

5. a semi-colon is used to join two independent phrases and clauses. the sentence here is made up of two independent phrases; 'Convey your ideas clearly' and 'use precise wording', hence, using a 'comma', to join both statements is wrong because both statements are independent statements, and a semi-colon (;) should be used.