Semicolons don't make you look cool · 10:26pm Aug 27th, 2013
Now, don't get me wrong. I love semicolons; I've used them fairly often in my own stories, even. But there seems to be this strange belief that semicolons are the better, cooler, more sophisticated version of a colon. I guess it looks kind of like a colon with a necktie (granted, I don't know where a colon's neck is), so there's that. But that aside, it's important to remember that there actually is a difference between semicolons and colons. Let's look at two fairly similar examples.
Rainbow Dash flew fast; she was flying as fast as a fast thing.
Rainbow Dash flew fast: fast as a fast thing.
The two are identical in the first clause, so that's obviously not the source of the difference. The reason you use a semicolon in one, and a colon in the other, is that the second clauses differ. Specifically,
She was flying as fast as a fast thing.
This sentence, well, is one. It has a subject, a verb that operates on it, all that jazz. So what about the other example?
Fast as a fast thing.
This is what is commonly referred to as a "sentence fragment," lacking, you know, the actual structure of a sentence. They have their place in writing, but what you can't do is combine them with another sentence using a semicolon. When you're appending a clause that wouldn't work as its own independent sentence to another sentence, use a colon.
But wait- when should you use a semicolon, then?
First of all, you don't technically have to use semicolons. A period or, in a pinch, a dash will pretty much always work where a semicolon would. But you should. Basically, semicolons should be used to show relationships between clauses. If you want to make it clear that two sentences have something to do with each other, attach them with a semicolon. The semicolon is the best punctuation mark for doing that.
I disagree with the assertion made in the title of this blog post! Semicolon is best pone.
I think it'd be more effective to show when to use semicolons rather than when not to. Semicolon is an oft misunderstood punctuation.
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I see people use semicolons when they shouldn't; I don't see people not use semicolons when they should.
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Perhaps, but the problem is that that's not how people learn. A lot of times, when you're trying to teach and you give an example of how it shouldn't be done, that's all that sticks in their head and it confuses them; sometimes they even end up perpetrating the very same errors you sought to correct.
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Fixed.
Dude I just write all natural and stuff and whatever sentences need semicolons or whatever, I just put 'em in there, dude.
*Takes bong hit*
My work is legible, but I'm never sure if I write right. I hated English class. Little tidbits like this help me, piece by piece, to get better.
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That's what they're there for!