The Semicolon (Word Usage)

The Semicolon

Although other punctuation is often overused, frequently misplaced, and left out when it is really needed, no mark creates the confusion and fear in students that the semicolon can produce. Most leave it out completely, fearing the thing they do not understand, and the brave few adventurers who believe they know just what it is more often than not get it completely wrong. Hopefully, this article will allow you to sprinkle a few choice semicolons throughout your next piece of writing, all impeccably placed and completely appropriate.

Thinking back to the vague rules you learn in elementary school for a moment (mentioned in a previous article), we remember that a period is a long pause, and a comma a short one. Appropriately, this leaves the semicolon halfway between, a piece of punctuation made of a period stacked on a comma which requires a medium pause when reading a sentence. Knowing how to read a semicolon is not very helpful in learning how to place it correctly in your own sentences, but knowing that the semicolon shares some of the properties of both the period and comma will help you to remember its proper use.

The most common (correct!) placement of the semicolon is at the end of a sentence, just before another complete sentence that is closely related to the first. In the following example sentence, the semicolon is used correctly: "War always leads to many casualties; however, it is a necessary evil." As you can see, the semicolon is placed between two complete sentences, and there are no connecting words needed, since the semicolon itself acts to relate the first sentence to the second. The first sentence here is very closely related to the second, as the second consciously contradicts the first by using "however," and uses the pronoun "it" instead of repeating the noun "war." When two sentences are so closely connected to each other, joining them in some way is appropriate, though remember that using a comma is not sufficient grammatically. A period would work here grammatically, but it would not show the relation between the sentences as well. So, the semicolon is the best form of punctuation for the job, combining the unifying strength of the comma, and the grammatical appropriateness of the sentence-ending period.

Another excellent use of the semicolon is as a divider of items in a list. I know many of you are now asking why you would ever use a semicolon to divide listed items when a comma would do just fine, but there are some cases where a comma is too confusing to be of any use on its own. The following list shows the limitations of the comma: "I have been to Paris, France, London, England, Toronto, Canada, and Tokyo, Japan." Now, if we look closely we can see that the items presented here are not actually all separate entities, but rather pairs of cities and countries. With the punctuation as it stands now, you might be wondering why this person tells you they have been to France after they have already told you they have been to Paris. However, it is also not correct to leave the comma out between the city and the country it is in. Here, the semicolon comes to the rescue by making the pairings obvious: "I have been to Paris, France; London, England; Toronto, Canada; and Tokyo, Japan." In these kinds of lists, as well as those whose items are longer phrases with commas in them, the semicolon works in conjunction with the comma to make the list much easier to understand.