Writing 101: To Semi-Colon or not to Semi-Colon? That is the Question.

A semicolon is often a mystery to me, Bill. I have now read two hubs about it and decided I don't like them. I took an online grammar course, which was very difficult. I missed one question, or I would have a completed grammar course. My English teachers must not have covered some elements of grammar. Anyway, thank you for the very clear article about semicolons. Sharing, Blessings, Audrey

You taught me a couple of things here!

Good to see the teacher come out here in the article. You refreshed my memory on the proper usage of the semi-colon (I'm sure I have made mistakes on this in writing.).

A wonderful lesson Bill. Though I use the semi colon sparingly, I feel I could use it a bit more.

Thanks for this refresher.

Well I have to beef up on my grammar now. I don't use a semi-colon very often, but after reading your examples I probably should be in certain instances. Uh oh! Very useful hub Bill.

Thanks for a very clear lesson on the semi-colon. Very helpful!

Thanks for clarifying that Bill. I bet my daughter a donut and won! :) Also, I was kidding when I say, I excel in English; didn't mean to be that conceited. Just good enough, I'd say!

There, I used your semi-colon.

I have to print this one, billy. I suck at this stuff!

Dear Bill,

What a good refresher course this is and now I have another question to clarify on the correct usage of "who & whom".

You know on FB page when you post a picture, you have this option of tagging people. In the side note, it asks you: "Who were you with?". I was discussing this with my daughter and I told her FB is wrong. It should be, "whom" (object) not "who" (subject) as far as I know. Because, if I'm going to correctly answer FB's question, my reply should be, "I was with billybuc or I was with him." Mind you, English is my second language but I excel in this subject. :) So, think I am right but then again, I may be wrong.

Please help this writer spread her wings and fly and draw the attention of Mark Zuckerberg, if I am correct. Lol! Thank you.

The semi-colon is an endangered species, Bill. Except for maybe once or twice in informative writing to separate complicated series like Buffalo, Ohio; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Oshkosh, Wisconsin, it serves no literary purpose. RIP, little semi, we barely knew you!

thank you for the lesson Dr. Semi-Colon.. wasn't confused before but now I am...LOL kidding you hit dead on

I have always enjoyed punctuation and its rules. Yep, I am odd. You provide a lovely explanation. It has taken me three views to leave this freaking comment. Pesky technical stuff. Great hub, Bill.

Bill, thank you for taking the time to write an entire Hub on this grammar issue. I know I found it really helpful; from the comments it was also useful to other writers. Was that proper? Or, could the above clauses be two different sentences. Wax on, wax off. This grasshopper is working on it.

I found your breakdown of the four difference instances you use a semi-colon to be very useful. I also found your ending idea to be very interesting. I have always been hesitant to use semi-colons in fiction and never really knew why.

My favorite grammatical tool is the em-dash, it gives a nice break between ideas or thoughts; it's very helpful for dialogue. How was that, teach? C-, maybe a B+??? I love how it has become socially acceptable to break the rules; however, I do have a tremendous respect for the writers who were given proper grammar education, even if that involved a few hand slaps.

Semicolons are as little used by writers as marketing; both concepts require practice, persistence and patience to master. :) Cheers!

Thanks for the grammar writing tips, Bill!

Lol, Bill. Thank you. But you do use the dash, the parenthesis, etc., expertly, which isn't easy to do. So I'm not going to let you off the hook. :-)

Bill, I too, use the semi-colon. It is often overlooked, as is what my father used to call, “the gentlemanly dash and …” Instead, a sea of commas are inserted. But after reading this excellent article, I must now go back and make sure I use mine properly. Thank you, my friend, for keeping us informed, wonderfully encouraged, and helping us “to spread our wings.” What we do without you?

Nice explanation and a reminder of the grammar lessons.

Thanks for sharing this useful hub!

Very intelligent article; awesome presentation with good examples. I was also having much problem with commas and semicolons; it's so crystal clear now. Thanks for sharing your great grammar with us.

Good work Billybuc. The naughty Grammarian approves. voting up and useful.

Geez, is there a support group for this? I admit it. I am an overuser of semi-colons. I often edit them down (not out) and still end up with at least 4 in any one article.

I also had 12 years of Catholic education and the main English lessons I remember are: a period is a full stop and a comma is a pause. So I reason it out that a semi-colon is a breath before continuing to the end of my sentence. I like them. They look dignified. lol

Hi Bill. I'm sure I slept through this class years ago. Thankfully I have you to set me straight. Thanks for the lesson. Have a great week.

Bill, yep...hands up, I was reviewing and updating some old hubs recently, and yes, I did go a little over the top with those semi-colons; however, I think I have now outgrown the habit. Last one just for you.;)

Interesting and very useful article. Voting up all the way and bookmarking. The printer is out of ink. Hope all is well with you, my best as always.

When I was in sixth grade I was in sixth grade I went to a private school. I was, er, well, not a great student. I was far too interested in reading Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew novels to do boring homework.

My first level punishment was to write 100 of the following sentences:

I am in training to be an adult; therefore, I will conduct myself in an adult manner.

The second round of punishment was...well...now I'm off topic. Obviously I didn't learn the intended lesson from the first level.

What stuck with me from level one was not the lesson but the sentence structure and the use of the semicolon in conjunction with the word "therefore".

I was born free, and I was born to be a writer!

And that, my friend, is a true story!

Either would do I believe! :)

I was always getting corrected for run on sentences because I have a tendency to run on. Semi-colon or comma didn't matter much then but of course does now. As I try to write "correctly".

So, like my dear friend Paula I think the best thing to do is ignore semi-colons and just stay away from them!

Voted up, useful, awesome, and interesting.

ALL of your lessons are clear, concise and extremely helpful......You could have been a superb teacher....Oh......wait. I always learn something important and useful......but speaking of....I never found a damned thing important or useful about a SEMI-COLON, so I just ignore it. Same thing I do with people I don't like.....

OH! and speaking of them......there is an ENTIRE colon, including the A$$.....handing out ignorant remarks over in Pop's neighborhood. See you later at the Inn.......(I know some people who hang out back)

Instructional and well written hub Bill. Thanks. Jamie

I just wrote a blog post on my author page about the semi colon. I like the way you explain it. Would you mind if I linked your hub for further reading?

I've looked up the 'comma before conjunctions' thing and apparently it is, as I thought, a UK v US issue. So there we are. We're both right so that's perfect, isn't it?!

Ann :)

That about explains it; thanks.

In olden times, in the days of leisure reading, semicolons were found in fiction. This extract is from the first paragraph of MOBY DICK by Melville: "Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people’s hats off—then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. This is my substitute for pistol and ball. With a philosophical flourish Cato throws himself upon his sword; I quietly take to the ship."

You knew that title would catch my eye, didn't you, Bill? Your explanation and examples are very effective and should prove helpful to Jen and any readers who aren't certain how to accurately use the semi-colon.

Voted Up++ and shared. Have a great day!

Jaye

I have a feeling that I missed a couple of simi colons on the Christmas piece I wrote yesterday. Your example's were good and I could see more clearly how to use them. Thank you Bill...

Thanks for lesson in grammar. We never really learned how to use semi-colons in school. Or perhaps we did and I just didn't get it. I do now!

Hi Bill. I really found this hub helpful. I read it a couple of times and it got through. Thanks for an interesting lesson.

Graham.

My advice is to avoid semicolons when possible. They used to be used a lot in old-style writing, but the trend nowadays is to avoid them by either shortening the sentence into two sentences. I agree with Bradmaster that I would prefer conjunctions in the examples. My reason is that it is kind of Victorian or early 20th Century to use the semicolons.

In my job as a legal editor, we allow semicolons in only two situations in the law books, well, three if you count occasional used in formatting like catch lines. In the vernacular, catch lines are headers and sub-headers to introduce new sections. Anyway, we use them in confusing series where the use of commas won’t adequately separate the items (Your rule no. 3) and in the formatting of long thoughts that should not be broken into sentences. Here’s an example:

(a) All acts, codes, and statutes, and all parts … are repealed unless:

(1) Expressly continued … Code;

(2) Omitted improperly or erroneously … this Code; or

(3) Omitted, changed, or modified by … or modification.

Please note how the thought continues through subdivision (3). This could have been written in one paragraph, but it would have been long and bulky, so it was broken up and the semicolons continue the thought into the next subdivision. Also note my use of ellipses to truncate the clauses so I won't be plagiarizing the material. I point this out because many people don’t know what they are, or at best, how to use them. I trained one proofreader who thought an ellipse used one dot per word omitted. Anyway, good hub on a confusing subject, my man. I salute you!

I think I am making two sentences out of something that should use semi-colons. My teachers were so into diagrams that they never taught me rules like this. Thank you Bill for the advice.

Another great hub on a topic that was never explained this clearly in grade school. Perhaps the problem is that my instruction came from Lutheran spinsters rather than Catholic nuns.

Oooh, I like 'grammar queen'! Wish I was!

I think there were lots of little extras that our last primary year English teacher taught us! Like your nuns, he was known to rap a few knuckles but only the boys', thank goodness.

Ann

I am totally confused.

Here I thought we were going to get suggestions on how to clean our colon. I figured semi-colon was just a partial cleanse. And then this whole thing about being in a coma and periods really threw me off.

Oh well back to the nunns.

Bill I enjoyed the hub and it was spot on. Thank you

Good info, my friend.

DJ.

Semi-colons I use sparingly, but I try to use appropriately. Adverbs on the other hand; I use superfluously. Thanks, Bill!

Thank you so much for this. I found it really useful. Will use semi-colons more from now on.

Bill, this is one of the saner conversations I've had with my kids. lol

I also had the benefit of Catholic school education, where perfection is expected when learning The Three R's. However, I was unaware that the semicolon is frowned upon in fiction. That's good to know; I'll be paying close attention to sentence structure. Often, breaking a long sentence into two is just as, if not more, effective.

Serendipity. My kids and I were discussing this earlier this afternoon. After reading this, I think we've got it sorted out. Thanks for the hub.

I'm so glad you said, 'Use them correctly.'!

I know I use semi-colons a lot and I try to keep a check on them. I totally agree about using them sparingly in fiction. Short sharp sentences amongst longer ones are so often the best. Semi-colons are more for written discussion, I feel, though descriptions need them from time to time.

These little things are so often dismissed as trivial but for me they are the building blocks of the language and as such are vital to writing.

It might be an American thing but I was always taught never to put a comma before conjunctions. There must be exceptions, as with everything, but (see, there's one to isolate a qualifier!) it seems superfluous to me. What do you think?

Great question from Jen and well done, bill!

Happy Wednesday to you and yours!

Ann

billybuc

Great hub.

After failing the first example, AND looking at the rest of them, I would use a conjunction instead of a semicolon.

It seems to be more understandable, and logical to use the conjunction rather than a semicolon.

Is it cleaner and clearer to say. For example: My hair is black, and peppered with strands of gray?

Now, I will have to go back to my hubs and evaluate my punctuation.

I may have been free with commas, when the correct punctuation should have been a semicolon.

Call it conversational English.