Read the following excerpt from a student essay. How can the writer best improve his or her grammar and mechanics?
Self-expression is important, therefore, you should be yourself no matter what other people think. People might express their inner selves through music, art, or writing, through foods they eat, cook, and serve others, or through their home decor. I choose to express myself through my clothing and my hairstyle. When I was eight years old, my mother taught me how to sew, now I make all of my own clothes. I also dye my hair crazy colors, like green or blue. Sometimes people stare at me and seem to wonder why I look the way I do. My answer is, "I just gotta be me!"

 - by adding missing commas
 - by using semicolons correctly
 - by punctuating the quotation correctly
The writer could best improve his or her grammar and mechanics by using semicolons correctly.
For example, the writer could use semicolons before the conjunctive adverb therefore in the first underlined sentence, to separate items in a series containing commas in the second underlined sentence, and instead of a comma to separate main clauses in the third underlined sentence.
Self-expression is important, therefore, you should be yourself no matter what other people think. People might express their inner selves through music, art, or writing, through foods they eat, cook, and serve others, or through their home decor. I choose to express myself through my clothing and my hairstyle. When I was eight years old, my mother taught me how to sew, now I make all of my own clothes. I also dye my hair crazy colors, like green or blue. Sometimes people stare at me and seem to wonder why I look the way I do. My answer is, "I just gotta be me!"