Grammer a Week 7: Semicolons · 10:28pm Mar 13th, 2015
This is Grammer a Week, the periodic blog program-thing where I address a frequently broken grammar rule and tell you how to fix it. This week's installment is about the semicolon. You know that keyboard key under your right pinky finger? Yeah, the one that you never seem to use? That's the semicolon key. It's probably the most under-used key on the home row. It really shouldn't be there, but now that it is, might as well figure out how to use it, right?
The super-comma
The easiest use for the semicolon is in a series where the terms themselves have commas in them. For example, if you've got three or more elements that you need to connect together in a list, you would normally connect them with commas:
Today, Celestia will visit Twilight, Luna, and Cadance.
But what if you want to include the ponies' titles? To avoid confusion and comma abuse, use commas to separate the pony and title, and use semicolons to separate the terms themselves:*
Today, Celestia will visit Twilight, Princess of Friendship; Luna, Princess of the Night; and Cadance, Princess of Love.
The surrogate period
The most common use of the semicolon is in separating two independent clauses. I've already covered this before in a previous post, but I'll go into more depth this time. Two independent clauses kind of look like two complete sentences. They can be set apart with the semicolon:
Fluttershy went to bed early that day; she was exhausted.
Or you could just as well separate the two clauses with periods:
Fluttershy went to bed early that day. She was exhausted.
So why would you use a semicolon over a period? Stylistic reasons, mostly. Semicolons are generally used between two independent clauses that are closely related to each other and don't warrant punctuation between them as strong as a period. In the above cases, both examples are correct, but I would use a semicolon between the two independent clauses. A period between makes the sentences read choppy.
Note also that it's possible to misuse the semicolon in this way:
Several loud squawks erupted from the living room; Fluttershy, sighing, roused herself from her sleep to investigate the noise.
Again, this example isn't wrong, but it's in bad taste. The two independent clauses don't really have that much to do with each other.
Also, beware words like "however," "therefore," and "thus." Consider the following:
The heavy snow made it hard to walk, thus the mail service was grounded today.
This may seem okay, but it's actually a comma splice: the word "thus" cannot be used to separate two independent clauses. Only a coordinating conjunction (like "but," "for," and "and") can be used in this situation; it would be called a compound sentence in that case. "Thus" is not a coordinating conjunction. (It's actually a conjunctive adverb, but that's a different post.) In this situation, you would actually want to use a semicolon:
The heavy snow made it hard to walk; thus the mail service was grounded today.
* Regardless of whether or not you like to use the Oxford comma to separate the final term in a series, when using the semicolon as a super-comma, you must include the final semicolon.
Thanks for reading! If you have any questions or comments, please post them below. I'm always open to suggestions for future Grammer a Week posts.
*Grins* My favourite punctuation mark of all! As I said in my RCL interview:
Sadly, though, I can't find a single thing to take issue with this time around!
2873974
Pshaw. You semicolon conservatives—the em dash is where it's at!
If you don't have anything to argue about, I guess I'll just take this time to soapbox on how asinine the QWERTY keyboard is, then! I said this in the intro, but seriously: why in the world does that key even have to exist on the home row? It's a waste of a key! And your two index fingers occupy "F" and "J"! Really, how often do you use those letters? That's one of the reasons why I don't use a QWERTY keyboard.
2874038
Well, as it happens, I – being British – would use a spaced en dash there anyway.
I do use unspaced em dashes, but only for things like cut-off dialo—
Yes. Like that.
It is, but then: a) it was designed to be awkward; b) I don't think about it much; and c) I don't touch type anyway. I don't hunt and peck either, and I don't look at the keyboard while I'm typing; it's a sort of mixed system using between four and six fingers depending on what's being typed.
2874246
If you want to get really picky, some people (like typesetters) will advocate using a spaced em dash, but with hair spaces flanking the dash — like that. I'm kind of insane when it comes to grammar, but I'm not that insane . . . yet. I am insane enough to specifically use non-breaking spaces for my ellipses, though!
I know the QWERTY keyboard layout sucks. I do touch type, and I hated how my hands would dance all over the keyboard when typing. That's why I switched to a Dvorak layout. Though, in hindsight, I'm not sure if I should have; the rest of the world still uses QWERTY, and now I kind of forgot how to type with it.
2874481 Unless we're all going to start using LaTeX to submit our stories, I think hair spaces can safely be ignored! Online publication isn't the same as print publication, and we shouldn't pretend otherwise. This is why I get irritated when people insist on putting two spaces after a full stop: it looks silly online.
One of my pet peeves with this fandom is its bizarre convention of using both indenting and blank lines between paragraphs. It's Equestria Daily's fault, I believe, and is now so entrenched that it will probably never disappear. I still refuse to follow suit, though: as far as I'm concerned, for publishing online, a blank line is all you need.
Well... doesn't bother me! Like many (most?) British writers, I don't use spaces between the dots at all.
Wow, you explained that better than my high school teachers. I think I may understand semicolons now.
2875684
Actually, most people I know don't use the ellipsis the way I do, either. I know that my way is considered correct (at least when it comes to MLA and CMOS), but nobody else really bothers with it. There are actually some 6 ways to write an ellipsis, but there's no consensus as to which one is definitively right. The most elegant way to form an ellipsis is to type three periods into Word (...) and let it auto-correct to an ellipsis character (…). I just space out my ellipses because I like how the kerning between each of the dots is the same as an ordinary space.
Really? I wasn't aware of that. All I know is that one is encouraged to line break between paragraphs or indent them, but not both.
2876023
That's what I'm here for, sister! That, and ponies make everything—including grammar lessons—better.
2876892
It turns out to be in their Editor's Omnibus under "Formatting". I quote:
To me, that last bit is fundamentally flawed advice. I've actually brought up the issue with them once or twice, but nothing's changed.
2876902
Ugh. I actually have read the Editor's Omnibus, but I forgot that part, and maybe that's a good thing. Because from our Fimfiction Writing Guide:
I'm writing an article about style guides that writers can consult for more tips from more qualified individuals, and I may very well skip over the Editor's Omnibus for this reason.
2876892
But that involves using Word.
Compose-period-period is how I go.