Semicolons Aren't Just Fancy Commas

I promised myself that I wouldn't use this blog to air pet peeves, but as it is a blog (generally) about writing, I thought, ah, what the heck...

I continue to be amazed at just how often a single piece of punctuation is constantly misused, and if you read the title of this blog post, you already know that I'm speaking of the semicolon.

I've seen it used in place of the colon.  I've seen it used like a comma (now there is a way to use it like a comma, but I'll get to that in a second), and I've seen it just, well, sit there for no good reason at all.  And I'm not just talking about spam emails I've received, or semi-literate, throwaway forum posts on the internet.  I'm talking about major books written by major authors.  And it blows my mind.

I am, by no means, a professor of grammar, and I'm also not perfect.  I've made my fair share of writing boo-boos in my time.  However, the semicolon is so constantly misused and abused I felt I had to say something.  Semicolons aren't difficult; anyone can use them.

See what I did there?  That's right.  I used a semicolon.  Correctly. Now it isn't the greatest sentence ever scribbled in the English language, but I followed the basic rule for the semicolon's number one use: seperating independent clauses (related to a similar topic).  If you drop a semicolon in the middle of a sentence both halves must be able to stand alone as sentences of their own.  Like this:

Semicolons aren't difficult.  Anyone can use them.

See.  Two sentences.  And they could very well remain two sentences, but sometimes it's about flow.  Sometimes you just want to get a rhythm going and how you do that is up to you.  It's what makes writing such a cool endevour.

As I  alluded to earlier, the other use for a semicolon is similar to a comma.  This is done when you are making a list, and within that list commas are already being utilized.  Say you wanted to list places you have visited:

Last summer we travelled to Oslo, Norway; London, England; and Paris, France.

Since there are commas already separating the city name and country, semicolons act like a super comma.  If you didn't use the semicolon it would look like your keyboard threw up commas all over your page.  That, and it would be confusing for the reader.  Like so:

Last summer we travelled to Oslo, Norway, London, England, and Paris, France.

Doing it that way makes it seem like you are listing Oslo and Norway (and the others) as if they were places you visited separately.  It doesn't make sense.

Personally, I find this stuff about semicolons pretty straight forward.  Some people don't.  I get that.  But we live in the age of the internet.  The proper use of a semicolon is right at your fingertips.  Just plunk it into a search engine and away you go.  So if you read this and five minutes later you forget about it, that's fine.  But when you're tempted to throw a semicolon into your writing and you aren't sure if you're using it correctly, look it up.  The world will thank you for it.  Of course, they'll also thank you for using them sparingly.  Trust me.

So there you have it. Now use this knew found knowledge wisely, before we have to start placing semicolons into the witness protection program...