Semi-colon; the most divisive pixels and dots

Do you know how to use a semi-colon??

Keeping an overzealous, young approach to ellipses aside and choking out those hanging participles, I hate semi-colons. To quote author Kurt Vonnegut, the secret to good creative writing is to avoid using semi-colons at all costs. Why??

All they do is show that you went to university!?

In the copywriters' room, you’ll find language-nerds spewing knowledge about how the interrobang is their favorite punctuation. There will be stinker emails from corporate Karens ego-stroking their native supremacy about Oxford commas, yet people hardly know what to do with this mysterious punctuation.?

But my relationship with the semi-colon is what Facebook statuses describe as “complicated”. It’s a love-hate affair, where I call on her when I have a thought, but get the manic spree of not finishing it. And sometimes when sentences take a life of their own and decide to have a short-lived one.

Also, when the carousel ride that is my brain, decides to have two thoughts running parallelly that are as related to each other as black holes and dark matter but have a similar quantum difference; I use her — a semi-colon.?

As divisive as the punctuation is, we all identify with its confusion yet are confident in its use. So, where did it come from?

Prior to widespread literacy, most writings were meant to be read aloud. So, the original intent behind our friend the semi-colon and like many others of its kind was to act like the crochet rest in musical notes. But when literacy began to grow the demand for standardization of syntax became quite the rage and ended the age of beautiful explorations.?

People began reading alone in their heads and the purpose of punctuations began to shift.??

Our hero was born in the 15th century, but through its days in the de trop of flourishing trade and commerce, cultural exchange, and humanly humanness; the semi-colon changed.?

Did you know the 17th edition of the Chicago Manual of Style prescribes 38 rules on how to use a comma?

Rules of grammar and punctuation in the ever-evolving chaos that is language and culture often become a very important part of people’s identity. But it should not be. The prescriptive grammar Nazis typing hate comments under YouTube videos and Insta reels are basing their opinions on a house of cards.?

So, bite your lips the next time you’d want to correct someone's use of it’s vs. its. Loyalty is best-suited to the man’s best friend, and obsession only looks hot in plotless movies. The purpose of the written and the spoken word is to communicate ideas, tell stories, connect, and relate. As long as thoughts are clear, keep your grammar claws away and sharpen your skills at shaping your ideas.