WRITE GUD... YOU ARE WHAT YOU WRITE!
by Neal Doten
Use semi-colons - they are stronger than commas
Congratulations!!! You have made it through the first six months of
learning to write more effectively... and present a professional image
on paper. I hope you have had the chance to use some of the ideas from
this column. And, if you have been reading this just to enjoy the humour
found in other people's writing (i.e. the examples from Richard Lederer's
More Anguished English , that's fine too.
I enjoy writing this article every month, and if I help just one
person write a little better, then the effort is worth it. Thanks for picking
up the Abaco Journal and reading this column!
Now, back to this month's article...
If I had to pick a punctuation mark that is often overlooked or used improperly,
the semi-colon would be one. (The other would be the dash - but I will
save that for another article.) This month I want you to start using another
punctuation mark that is very effective and will help improve your writing.
The semi-colon (;) is stronger than a comma in the sense that it creates
a greater pause or division within a sentence. There are three common uses
for a semi-colon, and I will talk about those and give you some examples.
The first use for a semi-colon is to set-off certain keywords from the
rest of the sentence. These keywords or expressions are ones you commonly
use in speaking and writing when changing from one thought to another.
Some of them are: however, for example, therefore, accordingly, and furthermore.
Here's an example to help you:
"The environmental movement has improved our water resources; however,
acres of rain forest are still being destroyed on a daily basis."
The second use for a semi-colon involves separating items in a series for
improved clarity when commas are also present. This may sound a little
confusing at first, but think about it this way: you want to make it clear
which things go together (such as people and their titles). A person's
name and their title are always separated by a comma, so a series of names
and titles in a sentence can be confusing... that's when the semi-colon
saves the day! Here's an example:
" The Garden Club elected new officers that included Mary Rose, President;
Ruby Begonia, Vice president; Fern La Plante, Secretary; and James Oaks,
Treasurer."
This use for the semi-colon also applies when putting a series of cities
and countries in a sentence. If you were describing the attendees at a
regional conference, you would write, "Members attending the Caribbean
Conference represented Nassau, Bahamas; Bridgetown, Barbados; Havana, Cuba;
and San Juan, Puerto Rico."
The third opportunity to use a semi-colon involves separating a number
of clauses that contain commas - all within the same sentence. (This is
really just a variation of the second use for a semi-colon, but it needs
to be described on its own.) You should use semi-colons as shown in this
example:
"The fisherman agreed to modify their equipment, boats and practices;
limit the size of the catch for some species; and release any dolphins
that may become entangled in their nets."
Now that we have taken the "mystery" out of semi-colons, you
can start using them to write more effectively. Just remember the three
common uses for semi-colons are: 1) to set off certain expressions; 2)
to better define items in a series when commas are also present; and 3)
to separate a number of clauses that contain commas.
Enough of this "serious stuff"! Here is something new... from
Richard Lederer's Adventures of a Verbivore . Here are two observations
on the differences between "American English" and the "Queen's
English".
"When a Brit tells you how marvellously 'homely' you are, that's a
compliment. He means that you are domestic and home-loving. In the U.K.
it is quite possible to be both homely and attractive at the same time."
"Such confusions serve to illustrate the truth of George Bernard Shaw's
pronouncement that 'England and America are two countries separated by
the same language.'"