Guest Author - Terrie Lynn Bittner

Using a semicolon correctly will make your writing look far more professional and educated. This misunderstood bit of punctuation is very simple to understand once you’ve had some practice. Take a good look at a semicolon. What two punctuation marks are combined into it? Yes, it has a period over a comma. Periods are a stop sign; commas are a slow-down sign. A semicolon combines both of those. Look at the semi colon I used earlier in this paragraph. The two sentences are related to each other. However, both could be stand-alone sentences, so they are each considered an independent clause. You could easily write:

Periods are a stop sign.
Commas are a slow-down sign.

They can’t be connected by a comma because they are both independent sentences that don’t absolutely need each other to survive. It’s sort of a speed limit sign. A comma tells the reader to hesitate for a fraction of a moment. A period says to stop completely, perhaps even taking a breath. But the semicolon is somewhere in the middle. It instructs the reader to slow down a bit longer so as to notice the connection between the two ideas.

Look at the sentence below. Could you replace the comma with a semicolon?

Janet ate cereal for breakfast, but John had pancakes.

At first glance, it might seem that you could, because you can correctly say:

Janet ate cereal for breakfast. John had pancakes.
However, there is a pesky little word stuck in-between those two sentences. If the words but, and, or, nor, for, or yet are between the sentences, you can’t use the semicolon unless you remove that little connector.

Wrong:

Janet ate cereal for breakfast; but John had pancakes.

Right:

Janet ate cereal for breakfast; John had pancakes.

Right:

Janet and John had cereal for breakfast; the monster then had Janet and John for breakfast.

Some connecting words do allow for semicolon. You can tuck a semicolon into sentences containing certain connectors, such as “for example” or otherwise. These types of words are usually followed by a comma.

Wrong:

I did not win fame and fortune for my invention, however, my mother thought my Baby Muzzle was a clever idea.

Right:

I did not win fame and fortune for my invention; however, my mother thought my Baby Muzzle was a clever idea.

Semicolons should not be the most common punctuation in your article. Use them sparingly, but correctly.