Do not fear the semicolon
Nicole, a tireless guide through grammar, talks today about the semicolon. Apparently Americans tend to avoid it, while Britons “can’t get enough”. The FT article which set this off gives a handy summary of its use:
Big deal or not, there is really only one use of the semicolon that is “more or less mandated�, says Ben Yagoda, professor of English at the University of Delaware and author of About Town, a monumental account of The New Yorker magazine (whose history is marked by fractious debates over the placement of commas). And that is to separate series elements containing commas (for example, “The cities represented were Albany, New York; Wilmington, Delaware; and Selma, Alabama). The other principal uses, says Yagoda, are discretionary: “That is I might, with total grammatical correctness and without changing my meaning in the slightest, choose any one of the following: 1. ‘The book under review is utter hogwash; and that is why it is worth examining.’ 2. ‘The book under review is utter hogwash, and that is why it is worth examining.’ 3. ‘The book under review is utter hogwash; that is why it is worth examining.’ 4. ‘The book under review is utter hogwash. That is why it is worth examining.’� Deciding which of the four to choose is strictly a matter of sound and rhythm, says Yagoda - that is to say, personal style. “Writers who like (consciously or unconsciously) to stop and pause, and/or who are under the influence of Hemingway, choose 4. Those who like balanced rhythms might choose 3. Those aiming for a ‘transparent’ style might choose 2. And those who are a little bit enamoured with the sound of their own voice might choose 1.�
I avoided the thing for a long time, confused by its purpose. That changed in an instant when I read Gowers’ Complete Plain Words. He said, simply
Do not be afraid of the semicolon; it can be most useful.
And that was all I needed to hear.
Mind you, I diverge from Nicole when she says
I’ve never been a fan of using semicolons in a series just because the separate items are long. So what? A comma works just as well.
Not quite. If the items are long then the reader is more likely to get lost, and the semicolons are a clearer guide to their separation.
Anyway, it’s good to see the semicolon receiving such publicity.
