The beloved semicolon
February 21, 2008 at 9:38 am | Posted in Uncategorized | 3 CommentsA NYTimes article explains how the semicolon rose to prominence in the New York subway system. Also, this article includes a grammar correction at the bottom; a nice bonus for the grammar nerds.
I’m a big fan of the semicolon because it can be used for pretty much anything. Semicolons join two clauses in place of a conjunction, saving space and sounding more streamlined to the ear. They’re also handy when using non-traditional punctuation in fiction or poetry or less-than-uptight blog posts; they indicate a pause that’s larger than a comma but shorter than a period.
Look how many semicolons I just used. It’s sick. I’m not sure if I use them exactly correctly all the time; I don’t really care. I was once leaving my friend Emily’s apartment at 4am to go make out with a nice boy, but I wanted to let her know where I was headed. I wrote on a napkin in black Sharpie, and I remember the nice boy going, “You used a semicolon in a napkin note?”
Side note: I edited this post for punctuation about ten times. Future posts will be less uptight or else I won’t have time for things like eating and going to my job.
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I LOVE SEMICOLONS TIMES ONE MILLION! That is why we are bffs.
Comment by Becca— February 21, 2008 #
I always feel like I don’t really know HOW to use the semicolon. And since my editing skills are nill in words – I just use a dash. For EVERYTHING. It’s terrible. I used to be a fan of the ellipsis – but then I had someone rant on me about my improper usage. So I dropped it. But I still like to say the word. ELLIPSIS!
Comment by Deedle— February 22, 2008 #
Semicolons effing rock. At work, people with the APA manual driven up their asses try to tell me how semicolons should and should not be used; sometimes I just have to tell them to have a seat and BACK OFF the punctuation.
Comment by Shayna— February 26, 2008 #