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Correctly used semicolons signal that you know English well and want to help your readers follow the logic of your sentences.
Here’s an illustration. It’s from an excellent writer’s interview with the editor of a magazine that had just been redesigned:
“Joe and I both loved the old New Republic,” [editor Franklin Foer] says. “We felt that we were drawing on a really rich aesthetic tradition; magazines used to know how to make type look beautiful.”
– Emily Gordon, “Primary Colors,” Print magazine, November/December 2007
In other words, the New Republic‘s rich, individual design tradition stretches back to 1914; many magazines from the early twentieth century still look beautiful.
Foer knows that the second fact doesn’t follow automatically from the first. That’s what makes Gordon’s semicolon perfect.
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Check out our new, one-page PDF “Semicolons: A Write It Well Guide”!
And for a thorough guide to punctuation in business writing, see our updated book Professional Writing Skills: A Write It Well Guide.
Could you use some help making sure your punctuation is correct, and your prose is engaging and easy to understand? Write It Well offers proofreading and editing servicesfor your or your employees’ business documents.
Just send us a document, noting any concerns or goals you have for it – e.g., whether the reader gets enough information from the text to understand your message. We’ll copyedit a sample portion for free and return it within two days.
You’ll get estimates of the cost and time frame for our sending you back a full, edited, engaging document that will make a great impression.
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This description of a two-million-dollar loft in Barcelona provides a good example of when to use a semicolon rather than a colon: “The windows are also original, as are the wooden-beamed ceilings; in the main living area, they are 16 feet high.”
– Virginia C. McGuire, “”House Hunting in … Barcelona,”
New York Times, Aug. 17, 2010
This semicolon is right for this sentence because the ceiling’s height doesn’t depend on its woodwork. But it makes sense to collect these loosely related topics in one sentence because together, they explain why the apartment gets beautiful light.
•
Check out our new, one-page PDF “Semicolons: A Write It Well Guide”!
And for a thorough guide to punctuation in business writing, see our updated book Professional Writing Skills: A Write It Well Guide.
Could you use some help making sure your punctuation is correct, and your prose is engaging and easy to understand? Write It Well offers proofreading and editing servicesfor your or your employees’ business documents.
Just send us a document, noting any concerns or goals you have for it – e.g., whether the reader gets enough information from the text to understand your message. We’ll copyedit a sample portion for free and return it within two days.
You’ll get estimates of the cost and time frame for our sending you back a full, edited, engaging document that will make a great impression.
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Here’s a great use of a semicolon to describe changes in the Supreme Court.
James Fallows points out that from 1789 “until 1970, the average tenure of a justice was under 15 years; since then, it’s over 26 years.”
– from “Modest Proposal: Fixed Tenure for the Supreme Court,”
the Atlantic, Aug. 7, 2010
Fallows describes the reasons for this change in other sentences. (Compared to previous centuries, justices are now younger when they join the court, and they live longer.)
A colon would be correct if this sentence showed cause and effect: “Change was inevitable: a new situation would emerge.”
The semicolon is perfect here since Fallows is simply saying, “This is how it used to be; things are different now.”
•
Check out our new, one-page PDF “Semicolons: A Write It Well Guide”!
And for a thorough guide to punctuation in business writing, see our updated book Professional Writing Skills: A Write It Well Guide.
Could you use some help making sure your punctuation is correct, and your prose is engaging and easy to understand? Write It Well offers proofreading and editing servicesfor your or your employees’ business documents.
Just send us a document, noting any concerns or goals you have for it – e.g., whether the reader gets enough information from the text to understand your message. We’ll copyedit a sample portion for free and return it within two days.
You’ll get estimates of the cost and time frame for our sending you back a full, edited, engaging document that will make a great impression.
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This whirlwind summary of Chelsea Clinton’s wedding shows a good use for semicolons: “The Wedding of the Year is over, and what have we learned? There was an interfaith ceremony; Bill lost the required weight, and then some; the cake was gluten-free.”
– Sally Law, “Personal Style,” The New Yorker, August 2, 2010
Semicolons are a polished way to connect two or more parts of a sentence that don’t have a clear logical connection. You use a colon instead of a semicolon when the connecting logic is obvious – e.g., “The wedding party was formidable … and so too was security: guests needed specially issued ID bracelets to board a bus to the ceremony.”
– Roxanne Roberts and Amy Argetsinger, “Chelsea Clinton, Marc Mezvinsky
wedding details,” The Washington Post, August 2, 2010
A semicolon would be right for the made-up sentence, “The bride wore Vera Wang; the guests wore specially issued ID bracelets.”
•
Check out our new, one-page PDF “Semicolons: A Write It Well Guide”! And for a thorough guide to punctuation in business writing, see our updated book Professional Writing Skills: A Write It Well Guide.
Could you use some help making sure your punctuation is correct, and your prose is engaging and easy to understand? Write It Well offers proofreading and editing services for your or your employees’ business documents.
Just send us a document, noting any concerns or goals you have for it – e.g., whether the reader gets enough information from the text to understand your message. We’ll copyedit a sample portion for free and return it within two days.
You’ll get estimates of the cost and time frame for our sending you back a full, edited, engaging document that will make a great impression.
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