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Here's a vitally important debate in these troubled times: the decline of the semicolon. According to the article, "Kurt Vonnegut called the marks "transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing." Hemingway and Chandler and Stephen King, said McIntyre, "wouldn't be seen dead in a ditch with a semi-colon (though Truman Capote might). Real men, goes the unwritten rule of American punctuation, don't use semi-colons." "
Huh. I use semicolons fairly regularly; I like the way they transition from one related thought to another in a single sentence. And after a colon, a list of examples or thoughts should be separated by semicolons, not simple commas. But perhaps I'm in the vast minority.
What about you? Are you a semicolon hater?
Huh. I use semicolons fairly regularly; I like the way they transition from one related thought to another in a single sentence. And after a colon, a list of examples or thoughts should be separated by semicolons, not simple commas. But perhaps I'm in the vast minority.
What about you? Are you a semicolon hater?
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He might have thought he didn't need a semicolon. Maybe someone wasn't man enough to tell him to punctuate properly. ;)
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Semicolons? Darned necessary. I am, however, perhaps somewhat inclined to overuse punctuation (and qualifiers) &hellip or perhaps it's just that others underuse punctuation. And don't get me started on the necessity of the serial comma. "My parents, Ayn Rand and God" indeed.
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K.
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K.
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I'm just as happy, however, that exuberant typists haven't embraced the multiple semis in quite the same way they pounce on multiple exclamation points...
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I shall ponder. Slowly.
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One thing I like about semicolons is they're less likely to be abused than other punctuation marks, notably apostrophes and commas. I can't remember ever being brought to a screeching halt by a misplaced or misused semicolon. Maybe it's only used by people who know how to use it properly.
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Real men don't use semi-colons?
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Re: Real men don't use semi-colons?
Join Us Now!
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I've never been stopped or disturbed by their use while reading, though.
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There are three things a semicolon can do that no other punctuation mark can do. A period, for example, ends one thought before starting the next. As OP pointed out, sometimes it is important to let one thought flow directly to the other. In those cases, a period is too abrupt.
Sometimes, not only do the thoughts flow into one another, but they complement one another; the second thought actually continues or exemplifies the other. Only a semicolon can prepare for a transition, yet keep you connected.
And, as OP commented, semicolons are indispensible when listing items which, themselves, are compound enough to require commas.
I, too, regret the recent abolition of the serial comma.
Maybe we're just old-fashioned?
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I read somewhere recently that it's implausible to use semi-colons in dialogue, because people don't use them in actual speech. Which is also bullshit: I use them all the time when I'm talking.
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(bolt from the blue)
in brackets, just to emphasise the weight of the revelation. As you say, though, not sure it ever really worked, and thankfully I dropped it fairly soon. You're right, we use them for experimental typography - and, in the process, discover why we tend not to use them at all...
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There is not one copyeditor out there you will be able to convince otherwise.
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...oh, and I like semicolons, too.
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