The semicolon might seem unimportant and even unnecessary, but it's actually quite a powerful form of punctuation that can help you convey your ideas more accurately and precisely. And you're in luck: it's not complicated to use and only needs a short blog post to explain how!
1) Use it to separate and connect closely-linked independent clauses.
Remember the comma splice? If a jolt of disgust just shot through you at the name, then you probably do. We mentioned that one way to avoid a comma splice is to separate the sentence parts with a semicolon, like this:
Anna could only fall asleep with her loyal Rottweiler at her side; she was afraid of intruders.
Now, these two clauses make total sense on their own and could have been separated by just a full stop,
(Anna could only fall asleep with her loyal Rottweiler at her side. She was afraid of intruders.)
but using a semicolon instead makes the connection explicit without using a conjunction, like so:
Anna could only fall asleep with her loyal Rottweiler at her side because she was afraid intruders.
Note: Only use a semicolon to separate clauses that are independent, so clauses that make complete sense if they were to stand alone.
Anna could only fall asleep with her loyal Rottweiler at her side; a loving companion who wouldn't hesitate to protect her.
Anna could only fall asleep with her loyal Rottweiler at her side, a loving companion who wouldn't hesitate to protect her.
2) Use semicolons to clarify complicated lists.
This is a simple list, despite being a bit long:
The meeting would include Mr. Red, Mrs. Black, Ms. Green, Mr. Orange, Miss Purple and Miss Yellow.
Now let's complicate it with some positions and sub-commas:
The meeting would include Mr. Red, Marketing, Mrs. Black, Sales, Ms. Green, Human Resources, Mr. Orange, IT, Miss Purple, Maintenance, and Miss Yellow, Education.
You see that writing a list like this can be confusing and difficult to sort out, so let's add some semicolons to clarify things instead:
The meeting would include Mr. Red, Marketing; Mrs. Black, Sales; Ms. Green, Human Resources; Mr. Orange, IT; Miss Purple, Maintenance and Miss Yellow, Education.
See how much easier that is to read?
And that's it. That's how you use semicolons in your writing. Not too bad, right?
Remember to check out our other posts in the Basics of Punctuation series if you haven't already, and check them out again as a refresher if you have. You can find them at the links below:
Basics of Punctuation: The Comma
Basics of Punctuation: The Colon
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