Ode to the semi-colon
Who am I to try and halt the clearly unstoppable flow of
changing attitudes and practices when it comes to the use of English? I
sincerely believe I am not pedantic and I enjoy watching changes in English use
and idiom, additions of new words and new ways of using old words. It’s part
of a process that has made English such a rich and fertile, interesting and
often beautiful language, used the world over.
But there are times when I look at otherwise perfectly
ordinary sentences and I wonder why they are so poorly punctuated. Actually, I’m
being a bit coy here. I don’t wonder so much as quietly tut under my breath.
The reason for these solecisms is clear: that less emphasis is surely placed on
teaching the correct use of grammar in schools today than used to be the case. It
is quite possible that this, in turn, results from a diminution in numbers of
people who study the classics, particularly Latin where grammatical accuracy is
paramount in the construction of verbs, tenses, agreements and so forth.
Grammatical slackness pervades a lot of our communications.
Emails are often unpunctuated; sometimes to the extent that you have to read
them several times before you are reasonably clear about the message. The worst
offender (apart perhaps from the hair-rending annoyance of apostrophes used to
signify plurals) is the lack of or the proliferation of commas. Alongside that,
in easy order, is the conspicuous absence of semi-colons sometimes balanced precariously
by their improper use.
Why are commas and semi-colons important?
Years ago, when conducting an effective writing course, I used
an example taken from a report in the Daily Telegraph to illustrate how and why
commas are needed. The piece was entitled ‘For the want of a comma’ and is
short enough to quote:
“A missing comma in British Rail
instructions resulted in the demolition of the waiting room at a Scottish
station listed because of its Victorian elegance. Now East Lothian District
Council has ordered the waiting room to be rebuilt.
“The waiting room at Drem, near
Haddington, was rapidly stripped of its rare fittings, windows, lavatories and
roof.
“Then someone took a second look
at the instructions from the British Rail management board in London and discovered
the mistake.
“The crucial sentence in the
board’s list of facilities to be preserved included the words “Drem station
bridge”. As a result only the footbridge over the line was earmarked for preservation.
Later engineers realised that a comma was missing and the requirement was to
retain “Drem Station, bridge…etc.”.
That’s an extreme example of when not to forget to use a
comma. Mostly, the appropriate use of commas and semi-colons helps you to understand
weight and emphasis; it tells you what part of the sentence refers to what
other part – and it conveys the meaning more effectively.
I asked some colleagues whether they were happy with their own
use of commas and semi-colons and a common response was that they weren’t quite
sure when to use one instead of the other. Just in case it is useful, here’s a
simple illustration from part my own effective writing course.
The comma is a punctuation mark used to indicate a slight
division between different parts of a sentence and to indicate a small break in
the continuity within the sentence. The comma marks a break that is less
emphatic than that shown by a full stop or semi-colon. We use commas in the
following circumstances:
1. To separate items on a list:
e.g. he packed his socks, shirts, underwear…
But no comma is needed before the final item in the list if
a conjunction or a linking word such as ;and’ is used:
e.g he packed his socks, shorts and underwear.
2. Between two clauses when the subjects of the clause are
different:
e.g Jack found a bottle, and Jim bought some food.
But if the subject is the same, no comma is needed.
e.g. Jill walked quickly and reached the top of the hill.
3. After a subordinate clause or a participle phrase when it
is followed by a main clause:
e.g. when the train arrived, it was ten minutes late. Or,
having run all the way to the station, Jim found he had plenty of time.
But if the main clause comes first, no comma is needed:
e.g. the ten o clock was ten minutes late when it arrived.
4. To cut off exclamations, parentheses, etc. from the main
sentence:
e.g. Oh, what a pity you didn’t catch him! Naturally, he
wanted to see you. He didn’t like, or didn’t seem to like, the film.
But we’re just scratching the surface with these examples.
There are so many more of them.
Let’s look briefly at a way of distinguishing between the
comma, the semi-colon and the full-stop. Take these three approaches:
He went outside, it was snowing hard. (incorrect)
He went outside. It was snowing hard. (correct)
He went outside; it was snowing hard. (correct)
The most common mistake in modern writing, in my view, can
be seen in the first of these examples – i.e. using a comma as a break when
actually a semi-colon or full stop is needed to give the right emphasis. Out of
the three examples, my preference is for the semi-colon for the simple reason
that a stronger break than a comma is needed to demonstrate two activities (going
outside/snowing) which are separate but related. Semi-colons allow you to bring in some subtlety
in your sentences. Just banging down commas is anything but subtle by
comparison and will blunt your meaning.
Here I am gently lowering myself from the saddle of my hobby
horse with apologies to all of you who already know how to use a semi-colon; how
it strengthens your style.
