If you must use the semicolon, please use it correctly. Here are three ways it can be used:

ONE: Use a semicolon to join two independent clauses without a conjunction, or a joining word. Used in this way, the semicolon stresses the closeness in meaning between the two sentences. It’s a softer, more subtle, break than a comma.

• Happiness isn’t something you experience; it’s something you remember. –Oscar Levant
• I never voted for anyone; I always voted against. W.C. Fields
• To say that we have a clear conscience is to utter a solecism; had we never sinned, we should have had no conscience. –Thomas Carlyle

TWO: Use a semicolon between two independent clauses joined with a conjunctive adverb (such as however, moreover, nevertheless) or a transitional expression such as in fact, for example, namely). Put the comma before the conjunction or transtional expression and a comma after:

• It is forbidden to kill; therefore, all murderers are punished unless they kill in large numbers and to the sound of trumpets. Voltaire
• This project appears to be overwhelming; nevertheless, it can be done.
• Genius consists in a carefully trained, highly polished ability; a thoughtfully educated, unbiased good taste; and a willingness to engage in, and a persistence to do hard work.
• The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd; indeed, in view of the silliness of the majority of mankind, a widespread belief is more likely to be foolish than sensible. –Bertrand Russell

THREE: Use a semicolon to separate items in a series, but only if any one of those items contains internal punctuation, such as commas. The semicolon in this function creates a hierarchy of separation:

• First prize was given to Jane Smervitz, Peoria, Illinois; second prize to Sam Frimpson, Duluth, Minnesota; third prize to Amber Ambleton, Oxnard, California.
• There were other factors too: the deadly tedium of small-town life, where any change was a relief; the nature of current Protestant theology, rooted in Fundamentalism and hot with bigotry; and, not least, a native American moralistic blood lust that is half historical determinism, and half Freud. –Robert Coughlan
• The wish of the genuine painter must be more extensive: instead of endeavouring to amuse mankind with the minute neatness of his imitations, he must endeavour to improve them by the grandeur of his ideas; instead of seeking praise, by deceiving the superficial sense of the spectator, he must strive for fame by captivating the imagination. –Sir Joshua Reynolds

NOTE: The semicolon is never required. In the sentences that illustrate the first two rules above, a period would work as well. It won’t be as subtle, but it will be correct. In the third rule, try using a bulleted list with open punctuation.

2 Responses to “How to Use the Semicolon”