Question

add a comma or semicolon if needed. otherwise, submit the text without any additional punctuation.
professional eater sonya thomas weighs only ninety - eight pounds but she has competed in nearly two hundred eating contests and is ranked sixth overall in the international federation of competitive eating.

Explanation:

Step1: Analyze the sentence structure

The sentence has two independent clauses: "Professional eater Sonya Thomas weighs only ninety - eight pounds" and "but she has competed in nearly two hundred eating contests and is ranked sixth overall in the International Federation of Competitive Eating". When two independent clauses are joined by a coordinating conjunction (in this case "but"), a comma should be placed before the conjunction.

Step2: Add the appropriate punctuation

We add a comma before "but" to separate the two independent clauses properly.

Answer:

Professional eater Sonya Thomas weighs only ninety - eight pounds, but she has competed in nearly two hundred eating contests and is ranked sixth overall in the International Federation of Competitive Eating.