Semi-collon

[Troughton1963]

Which is the stronger or better punctuation to use:

a semi-colon

or

a comma with a conjunction.

comma splices are my villain, I just can't seem to spot two related independent clauses.

 

[KeithD]

Depends on the context.

 

[NotWise]

Which is the stronger or better punctuation to use:

I don't think there's any pat answer to that. For me it depends on how I want the text to flow. Oddly (or maybe not so oddly) I remove most of my semicolons in editing. What seems like a good idea at first is sometimes not as good as a minor rewrite that I imagined later.

 

[Hypoxia]

An early Hollywood art director and Western humorist who started as a printer wrote:

I never did learn how to spell, – but I did learn the typesetter's rule, – "Set up type as long as you can hold your breath without turning blue in the face, then put in a comma. When you gape, put in a semicolon, and when you want to sneeze, that's the time to make a paragraph."​

See, punctuation is easy. Semicolons have their place. Right there.

 

[navycolt]

Many good writers never, ever use semi-colons. So if you're not using them, don't worry about. If you're using them a lot, that is something to worry about. The only time I might use a semi-colon is to connect two short, closely related independent clauses for dramatic effect. For example, We fired at the same time. He missed; I didn't. Another use of semi-colons is to separate elements in a series which themselves contain commas (and let's not get into serial commas). This is good punctuation but in fiction, probably not good writing. You want your writing to flow, so a long complicated heavily punctuated sentence full of semi-colons should probably be rewritten.

As for comma splices, I see these a lot in stories on Lit. They're easily avoided, however. If you have joined two clauses with a comma, but each clause makes sense alone (which a dependent clause would not do), you have a comma splice.

 

[ElectricBlue]

Many good writers never, ever use semi-colons. So if you're not using them, don't worry about. If you're using them a lot, that is something to worry about.

Yes, and equally, many good writers do use semi-colons. In moderation, in the right place, is always best; whatever the cadence and meaning of a sentence requires, and punctuate accordingly.

 

[sr71plt]

The semicolon has the greatest application in fiction--and in something like erotica and thrillers--where the author wants to rush the reader along with the action. It evokes breathlessness and the pumping of adrenaline. It's a tool that's there to be used to speed pace. Dumping in a series of short sentence fragments is a similar fiction tool that propels the read. Often the reader won't notice it's happening, but it will do the trick with pumping them up in the read. This isn't your high school English.

 

[navycolt]

Yes, and equally, many good writers do use semi-colons. In moderation, in the right place, is always best; whatever the cadence and meaning of a sentence requires, and punctuate accordingly.

agreed

 

[TeflonGuy]

I'm so glad the OP used 2 l's instead of one. Seriously.

 

[NotWise]

The semicolon has the greatest application in fiction--and in something like erotica and thrillers--where the author wants to rush the reader along with the action. It evokes breathlessness and the pumping of adrenaline. It's a tool that's there to be used to speed pace. Dumping in a series of short sentence fragments is a similar fiction tool that propels the read. Often the reader won't notice it's happening, but it will do the trick with pumping them up in the read. This isn't your high school English.

This is how I use it, but I often prefer the sequence of short sentences. In this use the semicolon isn't as much an alternative to a comma and conjunction as it is an alternative to the full stop.

 

[SimonDoom]

comma splices are my villain, I just can't seem to spot two related independent clauses.

I don't mean to be snarky, but was this intentional? This is an example of exactly the problem you say you run into: two independent clauses incorrectly joined by a comma. So if you didn't see this, then, yes, you have an issue with spotting this problem! If you did see it and are just being ironic, then maybe your problem isn't as bad as you think it is.

An independent clause can stand alone as a sentence. The clauses above are both sentences, so they cannot be joined by a comma without a conjunction.

You can write:

Comma splices are my villain. I just can't seem to spot two related independent clauses.

Comma spaces are my villain; I just can't seem to spot two related independent clauses.

Comma spaces are my villain, and [or, perhaps "for"] I just can't seem to spot two related independent clauses.

In nonfiction, I would use the first or second. In fiction, I would use the first and skip the semicolon.

My two rules about semicolons in fiction:

1. Use them sparingly.

2. Mix up your sentence structure. Don't repeat the same pattern over and over, falling back on the same punctuation everywhere. Use periods, commas, dashes, and, once in a while, semicolons.

The exception to the above would be where, as sr71plt suggests, you're using the semicolon for a deliberate artistic effect, and you're confident the effect is achieved with its use.

And, by the way, from what I can tell the more commonly preferred spelling is "semicolon", without the hyphen. Updated dictionaries appear to be trending this way, although you will find it spelled with a hyphen as well. My first draft of this post used the hyphen, but then I looked it over and it looked wrong. I looked it up and corrected it.

 

[sr71plt]

And, by the way, from what I can tell the more commonly preferred spelling is "semicolon", without the hyphen.

Yep, and it's in Webster's. And, yep, hyphenation is being cut down, at least in U.S. style. When I'm editing, I pretty much recheck every use of hyphenation.

 

[NotWise]

Yep, and it's in Webster's. And, yep, hyphenation is being cut down, at least in U.S. style. When I'm editing, I pretty much recheck every use of hyphenation.

I'm not a special fan of hyphenation. I'm less a fan of plastering two English words together to make one. Is there a tendency in that direction? Like "Hair spray" becomes "Hairspray."

The person I most often edit has been sticking words together willy-nilly, as if he were German, and I keep trying to take them apart again.

 

[KeithD]

I'm not a special fan of hyphenation. I'm less a fan of plastering two English words together to make one. Is there a tendency in that direction? Like "Hair spray" becomes "Hairspray."

The person I most often edit has been sticking words together willy-nilly, as if he were German, and I keep trying to take them apart again.

The rule is "when in doubt," don't (run it together or hyphenate it), but I haven't seen a whole lot of consistency in any direction of the three options in the formation of new combined words. Where it gets sticky is where it depends on how it's used (noun, verb, adjective) whether or not it's open/hyphenated/together.

 

[SamScribble]

The rule is "when in doubt," don't (run it together or hyphenate it), but I haven't seen a whole lot of consistency in any direction of the three options in the formation of new combined words. Where it gets sticky is where it depends on how it's used (noun, verb, adjective) whether or not it's open/hyphenated/together.

I have just written a sentence that includes 'late-night airtime on some of the local radio stations'. To my way of thinking 'air' and 'time' go together as 'airtime'. No problem there. But 'late' and 'night' (in the adjectival context) need a little space - which is what a hyphen provides. Maybe it's a Brit thing.

 

[SimonDoom]

I have just written a sentence that includes 'late-night airtime on some of the local radio stations'. To my way of thinking 'air' and 'time' go together as 'airtime'. No problem there. But 'late' and 'night' (in the adjectival context) need a little space - which is what a hyphen provides. Maybe it's a Brit thing.

Chiming in from the other side of the Atlantic -- I agree with you on this. "Airtime" is a well-established term of art that has become a word. "Late-night" is not. It's an adjective and a noun used together to serve as a modifier of "airtime." So hyphen is appropriate.