Teacher Discussion Forums

I need to transcribe a conversation. I'm stuck on the correct grammar of one sentence. The speaker is talking about what is inside a backpack and says:

well there are two notebooks an English book there is a pen and three pencils

So I'm thinking I should write it as follows:

Well there are two notebooks, an English book; there is a pen and three pencils.

What would be the correct way of writing that?


Your sentence is mighty fine. You’ve used a semicolon between comma-containing items in a series. I might be tempted to drop the semicolon and turn the 2nd closely related independent clause into one continuous item phrase like “ Well there are two notebooks, an English book, a pen and three pencils.” That’s just my preference.