Has it ever struck you how inadequate punctuation can be? Do you find yourself over-using ellipses? Have you ever yearned to use both an exclamation mark and a question mark at the same time?
Sometimes, when I write, I just get so frustrated by how punctuation-poor our language is. Commas seem brief. Periods seem so final. I try to use dashes and ellipses to eke out a little more nuance from written language, but it’s always a compromise.
So it stuns me that so many writers eschew the lovely semi-colon. Many editors despise them. There have been whole publishing houses that refuse to print one. The demise of the semi-colon can be traced to the rise of journalistic writing in the early decades of the 20th Century. The reason for its death was simple: most journalists just didn’t know how to use them. It’s just that stupid. They died because of ignorance.
There are two uses for a semi-colon. The simplest use is easy to learn and makes a lot of sense. Use a semi-colon after a colon when creating a list of clauses that contain commas:
There are many shades of black: ebony has a dusty, dry colour; midnight has a rich, deep blue undertone; jet is a hard, almost glazed type of black.
The second use for a semi-colon is the one that confuses most people, but I want to implore you to learn how to use them, because they’re wonderfully expressive. A semi-colon can join two complete sentences that are related in meaning, where the second sentence expounds, expands or examines the first.
To begin with, just to refresh, a complete sentence must contain a noun or pronoun and a verb. It can contain a lot more (adjectives, adverbs, etc), but it must contain those two things. i.e.
He jumps.
The ball rolled.
We are in love.
A plain colon can be used to join any two sentences that are meaning related, but a semi-colon requires that the second sentence enhances our understanding of the first in some way.
I curled my fingers around his cock; the hard shaft pulsed in my hand.
As you can see, the clauses before and after the semi-colon are both complete sentences, and I could simply separate them with a period. But the semi-colon is gentler, and takes the reader into a deeper engagement with the statement in the first sentence.
His kiss was icy; the heat of lust had drained away.
Semi-colons are brilliant for punctuating sex scenes in erotic fiction. You can use them to lead the reader through the physical reality and into the emotional core. They can join sentences of heightening eroticism without stopping it dead with a period.
Please… give it a try. The semi-colon is a wonderfully expressive part of our language and we shouldn’t lose it. For a more in-depth explanation of the semi-colon, I highly recommend the book ‘Eats, Shoots & Leaves‘ by Lynne Truss. I realize you might think a book on punctuation would be dull, but I promise you, it’s not.
Another good online guide for using semi-colons.
Never used one before? Want to give it a try? Go on – that’s what the comment box is for!
Enjoyed this post, RG.
One use for the semicolon is to convey a linking pause; one that’s longer than a comma but not as long or final as a full-stop. I have used this in the past… but it’s better done using an ellipsis!
Yeah, I have to admit to over-using ellipses.
Thanks for these thoughts on the semi-colon – really useful. I try to use them because I care about endangered species; it would be terrible if the semi became extinct. But I’m never really sure that I’m using them in the right place and expect finger-wagging feedback when I do.
In fiction I can get away with it, usually. In my real-world life as a journalist I don’t. Sub-editors take them out and think that reporters who use them need putting in their place.
You use them just fine!
I have to admit I overuse semi-colons all the time … my grammar-check seems to be always suggesting them to me (it’s all that thing’s fault!)
I know what you mean about using dashes to eke out more nuance, I’m guilty of that too … this feels like a confession of my crimes against grammar.
Anyway, great post RG, it reminds me of my now sadly forgotten grammar classes.
Your article is perfect, and I have a request for a related future piece, since I admire and respect your writing. I mostly admire the writer’s soul, but this is only supposed to be ten percent complimentary. I agree with your lament about punctuation, and wish to know how to overcome its limitations. I seldom use an exclamation point, though it is effective every fifteen or twenty thousand words. Sometimes the words themselves help: making love conjures far different images than fucking. With the latitude of an email, note, letter, I can emphasize with italics, underlining, quotation marks, or upper case. This is “NOT” however, proper written language. Any additional hints on how to use punctuation as an added asset, would be appreciated
I remember reading somewhere that an exclamation mark is the equivalent of a 14-year old girl squealing, and should therefore be used sparingly. I tend to use them far too often myself.
RG,
Great food for thought; a tasty morsel!
Thankyou,
-TFP
RG, I love this post, because I ADORE the semi-colon with a blazing passion. You are exactly right that they are a softer, linking way of connecting two thoughts together – the period is a finality, the comma a pause for breath, while the semi-colon is, I think, a lovely lilt between phrases, a brief suspension before the fall. (And as someone who isn’t really a big grammar nerd, I can’t believe how much this post has made me smile.)
A question mark and an exclamation mark? There is such a thing, it’s an interrobang ‽
On the Mac, you’ll find it in Characters > Punctuation
(There’s more on it and other strange punctuation marks at shady characters.co.uk
Yes, I actually did know about interrobangs. But I’ve never seen anyone use them. Thank you for that link. I’m going there now!
I…I think I love you for this. Back when I was still editing I was always like whyyyy are these people so scared of the semicolon? It’s beautiful! It’s wonderful! I see a dozen places where one would make this scene sooo much better! Long live the semicolon says I.
This is an interesting little article; I will find it very useful.
Oh, how lovely! ‘Eats, Shoots and Leaves’ is quite possibly my favorite book ever! Lynne is an utter delight! I positively delight in the section about James Thurber and Harold Ross’s conflicts over commas… ;->
I tend to be rather Dickensian in my comma usage; I’m a member of the “more commas equal more clarity” school of thought. How do you feel about them?
And of course semicolons are fun as well; in my occupation as a medical claims biller, I have striven to introduce my co-workers to the semicolon as an irreplaceable tool in the appeals-letter arsenal… albeit to little avail, as yet.
(You know, it’s rather silly that the first comment I’ve made in ages is on punctuation, of all things…)
*laughs out loud*
That was just beautiful.
I can’t blog about commas. I abuse them so cruelly myself.
“I have grown fond of semicolons in recent years . . . It is almost always a greater pleasure to come across a semicolon than a period. The period tells you that that is that; if you didn’t get all the meaning you wanted or expected, anyway you got all the writer intended to parcel out and now you have to move along. But with a semicolon there you get a pleasant little feeling of expectancy; there is more to come; read on; it will get clearer.”
— Lewis Thomas
h at last someone else who loves semi colons. I am not a professional writer but have to produce briefs in connection with the work I carry out, and I write for my own pleasure. I use semi colons a lot. I love them.
The semi-colon and I are in a deep, loving, committed – albeit polyamorous – relationship and I adore you for writing about him. Even though I do abuse at times… but I try very hard not to.
The semi-colon is masculine, LGS? No way! The colon, with those hard, piercing eyes and fixed stare is clearly masculine: there can be no argument about that. But his sibling, with that seductive, enticing, half-closed eye and come hither look can only be feminine 😉
In an entire article about semicolons, you did not see fit to use them except in your examples; does that not defeat your own argument about how wonderful they are?
Aha! I thought that if I used them in the piece it would be gilding the lily. 😛
Comes here after searching “Semicolons are underused” in Google, stays for the erotic fiction.
Serendipity