The New Exponent

By Ciara Frisbie
Staff Writer

Nice to meet you! I’m Ciara, your TWC Grammar Guru. Now, each new issue of The New Exponent will contain a helpful tip on some area of grammar that is often overlooked or confused. Hopefully, you won’t see the word “Grammar” and decide not to read. Some of these tips will be to your benefit and might actually help when it comes the time to write your next paper. My goal is simple: to make you love grammar as much as I do. Maybe you will even want to change your major to English! Yes, I set high goals.

The Grammar Guru: Semicolons

The poor semicolon is almost dead, so we might as well face the music, right? This precious punctuation mark is hardly ever used and, unfortunately, when it is, it is used in the wrong way. But let’s not be hasty and jump to conclusions; there is still hope. I think the main reason the semicolon is scarcely seen is because people simply do not know how to use it.

First, what on earth is a semicolon? The most basic definition would be that a semicolon separates two main clauses that are closely related but could also stand on their own as sentences and still make sense.  For example, “I’ve eaten so much today; I can’t hold anything else.” Note the semicolon separates the two clauses allowing them to remain one sentence. This obviously adds variety and makes the sentence more complex rather than just separating the two clauses with a period. There is nothing wrong with, “I’ve eaten so much today. I can’t hold anything else.” However, this just seems choppy and a bit boring.

Oftentimes, people get confused with combining semicolons and coordinating conjunctions such as “and” or “but.” It is wrong to write, “I’ve eaten so much today; and I can’t hold anything else.” This just looks ugly to me. This is the perfect time to use the comma that we so often misuse as well. It is proper to write, “I’ve eaten so much today, and I can’t hold anything else.” See? That is so much prettier.

Finally, one of the most important times to use a semicolon is when you use a conjunctive adverb to join two main clauses. I’m almost certain this is one that your English professors love to see coming. First of all, you may ask, “What is a conjunctive adverb?” Well, I’m glad you did. Conjunctive adverbs are words such as “however” and “therefore.” They show relationships between the two main clauses. Let’s take our example and throw in a conjunctive adverb:

“I’ve eaten so much today; therefore, I can’t hold anything else.”

It is optional to put the comma after “therefore,” but most style guides recommend it.

I hope this little tip helps you in some way; however, there are plenty more ways to use the semicolon. This is only a sample. I highly recommend subscribing to the Grammar Girl podcast on iTunes. You can find this and so much more about semicolons, commas, grammar, etc. on the podcast!