Semi-colons

Semi-colons Are Your Friends

created by The Writing Center at UNC-Chapel Hill

 

What this handout is about

This handout explains the most common uses of semi-colons (;).  After reading the handout, you will be better able to decide when to use this form of punctuation in your own writing.

Semi-colons

The semi-colon looks like a comma with a period above it, and this can be a good way to remember what it does. A semi-colon creates more separation between thoughts than a comma does but less than a period does. Here are the two most common uses of the semi-colon:
1. To help separate items in a list, when some of those items already contain commas.
Let’s look at an example, as that is the easiest way to understand this use of the semi-colon. Suppose I want to list three items that I bought at the grocery store:
apples
grapes
pears
In a sentence, I would separate these items with commas:
I bought apples, grapes, and pears.
Now suppose that the three items I want to list are described in phrases that already contain some commas:
shiny, ripe apples
small, sweet, juicy grapes
firm pears
If I use commas to separate these items, my sentence looks like this:
I bought shiny, ripe apples, small, sweet, juicy grapes, and firm pears.
That middle part is a bit confusing—it doesn’t give the reader many visual cues about how many items are in the list, or about which words should be grouped together. Here is where the semi-colon can help. The commas between items can be “bumped up” a notch and turned into semi-colons, so that readers can easily tell how many items are in the list and which words go together:
I bought shiny, ripe apples; small, sweet, juicy grapes; and firm pears.
2. To join two sentences.
An independent clause is a group of words that can stand on its own (independently)—it is a complete sentence. Semi-colons can be used between two independent clauses. The semi-colon keeps the clauses somewhat separate, like a period would do, so we can easily tell which ideas belong to which clause. But it also suggests that there may be a close relationship between the two clauses—closer than you would expect if there were a period between them. Let’s look at a few examples. Here are a few fine independent clauses, standing on their own as complete sentences:
I went to the grocery store today. I bought a ton of fruit. Apples, grapes, and pears were on sale.
Now—where could semi-colons fit in here? They could be used to join two (but not all three) of the independent clauses together. So either of these pairs of sentences would be okay:
I went to the grocery store today; I bought a ton of fruit. Apples, grapes, and pears were all on sale.
OR
I went to the grocery store today. I bought a ton of fruit; apples, grapes, and pears were all on sale.
I could NOT do this:
I went to the grocery store today; I bought a ton of fruit; apples, grapes, and pears were all on sale.
But why I would want to use a semi-colon here, anyway? One reason might have to do with style: the three short sentences sound kind of choppy or abrupt. A stronger reason might be if I wanted to emphasize a relationship between two of the sentences. If I connect “I bought a ton of fruit” and “Apples, grapes, and pears were all on sale” more closely, readers may realize that the reason why I bought so much fruit is that there was a great sale on it.

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You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout (just click print) and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

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Content of this posting create by UNC-CH Writing Center and it is available at http://writingcenter.unc.edu/handouts/semi-colons-colons-and-dashes/