I've been confused about the correct punctuation in a sentence like this for a while now

Question

In the sentence: Walker was not only a trailblazer in the medical field (, or ;) she was also a visionary. Should the comma be used to punctuate the two clauses or a semicolon instead. I'm guessing semicolon, though.

Answer 1

In this example you have two independent clauses. The first clause reads a bit awkwardly, and it can trick us into wanting to categorize it as dependent. However, it has a subject and a verb and is a complete thought. Since the words "not only" do not begin the sentence, they are not marker words for a dependent clause. As we have two independent clauses, the only correct way to punctuate between them would be with a period or with a semicolon.

Good guess!