Semicolons Are The Only Acceptable Half Measure In Life

The semicolon is such a weird punctuation mark. Stare at it for a minute. It looks like an incomplete stick figure drawn by a kid caught doodling in geometry.

Kurt Vonnegut hated semicolons and advocated against using them. “All they do is show you’ve been to college,” he said. Burn.

That’s an odd statement for a writer to make. There are only so many punctuation marks in the English language; why banish one outright? I personally struggle with exclamation points. They’re everywhere and some people are mad about that.

Semicolons come in handy. They’re not popular, which is why my wife says they’re like cubicles: You need a separator of some kind between you and your colleagues, but not a full wall.

Think of the semicolon as the only acceptable half measure in life. In our uncertain world, I’m surprised semicolons aren’t used more frequently.

Semicolons can be difficult to use appropriately; refer to Purdue’s Online Writing Lab for a quick overview anytime you’re using them.

Semicolons connect two independent clauses. Instead of saying “I am going to a Taylor Swift concert tonight and I have all her albums,” you could say “I am going to a Taylor Swift concert tonight; I have all her albums.”

Why would you bother saying it the second way as opposed to the first? It conveys the ideas are connected, not perfectly or even directly, but still connected.

They can be used for long lists of independent clauses. “As part of our plan our firm will execute the strategy; we’ll ensure all the right people are brought to the table; and we’ll be sure to report key metrics in a timely manner.”

Semicolons, as defined by Garner’s Modern American Usage, are a sort of supercomma that separate “sentence parts that need a more distinct break than a comma can signal, but that are too closely connected to be made into separate sentences.”

If you’re going to use semicolons, make sure you’re using them correctly by checking out these resources. If not, be like Vonnegut and just strike them all together.