Our Friend, the Semicolon

SEMICOLON BEFRIENDS ADAMS STUDENTSSarah Semicolon came to Adams Middle School on February 1, 2010 as a seventh grader.

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OUR FRIEND, THE SEMICOLON

Semicolons are sophisticated and versatile. - Since 1802

Our Friend, the Semicolon

Let’s begin with a simple sentence:

Grandma stays up too late.

Our Friend, the Semicolon

Now let’s expand on that a bit:

Grandma stays up too late. She’s afraid she’s going to miss something.

This is OK. Two independent ideas, separated by a period.

Our Friend, the Semicolon

What if we try to combine the two ideas?

Grandma stays up too late, she’s afraid she’s going to miss something.

Something’s wrong. We connected two independent clauses with only a comma. The dreaded COMMA SPLICE!

Our Friend, the Semicolon

We could insert a coordinating conjunction:

This is better! Note the comma that accompanies the coordinating conjunction.

Grandma is afraid she’ll miss something, so she stays up too late.

Our Friend, the Semicolon

We could also try subordinating one of these ideas:

Grandma stays up too late because she’s afraid she’s going to miss something.

Notice that the comma disappeared. One idea (the second one) now depends on the other; it has become a dependent clause.

Our Friend, the Semicolon

But let’s try something else.

Our Friend, the Semicolon

Let’s try using a semicolon in this sentence.

Grandma stays up too late; she’s afraid she’s going to miss something.

Notice there is no conjunction used with this semicolon – either subordinating or coordinating.

Just the semicolon, all by itself.

Our Friend, the Semicolon

Sometimes semicolons are accompanied by conjunctive adverbs – words such as however, moreover, therefore, nevertheless, consequently, as a result.

Grandma is afraid she’s going to miss something; as a result, she stays up too late.

Our Friend, the Semicolon

Notice the pattern:

; as a result,

semicolon + conjunctive adverb + comma

This is a typical construction with semicolons.

Our Friend, the Semicolon

There is one other use of the semicolon: to help us sort out monster listsmonster lists, like this one:

The committee included Peter Wursthorn, Professor ofMathematics, from Marlborough, Connecticut, VirginiaVilla, Professor of English, from Hartford, Connecticut, PaulCreech, Director of Rad-Tech, from Essex, Connecticut, andJoan Leach, Professor of Nursing, from Farmington, Connecticut.

Creditshttp://languagearts.pppst.com/semicolons-colons.html

Click on “Our Friend, The Semicolon”