Who was the driver of that semi?

[sleigh]

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?

Comments

[greatsword.livejournal.com]

I'll admit that I have to go through my text and reduce my use of semicolons. Especially after a long day of writing code, when I tend to end any complete thought with a semicolon. It gets better when my brain transitions out of C++.

I've never been stopped or disturbed by their use while reading, though.