By Dona Young

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Dona Young gave our first Writing Teacher webinar, where she covered some ways to make good grammar interesting and memorable for students. Her presentation files are available here, and include the slides and handouts from the presentation.

One thing that almost always confuses students is when to use semicolons. Here, Dona summarizes her three simple rules from Chapter 5: Semicolons and Other Marks, in her book Which Comes First, the Comma or the Pause? A Practical Guide to Writing.

SC Rule 1: Semicolon No Conjunction (NC)

Use a semicolon to separate two independent clauses that are joined without a conjunction.

For example:

Comma Conjunction: Al went to the store, but he forgot to buy bread. (CONJ)

Semicolon No Conjunction: Al went to the store; he forgot to buy bread. (NC)

Period: Al went to the store. He forgot to buy bread.

SC Rule 2: Semicolon Bridge (BR)

Place a semicolon before and a comma after an adverbial conjunction that acts as a bridge between two independent clauses.

For example:

Comma PAR: Bob, however, will determine the fees.

Instead, the semicolon bridge rule involves two complete sentences, with an adverbial conjunction providing a bridge or transition between the two:

Semicolon BR: Bob will determine the fees; however, he is open to suggestions.

SC Rule 3: Semicolon Because of Comma (BC)

When a clause needs major and minor separations, use semicolons for major breaks and commas for minor breaks.

For example:

Semicolon BC: Joni will travel to Dallas, Texas; Buffalo, New York; and Boston, Massachusetts.

Since the state names need commas around them, reading the above sentence without semicolons would be confusing:

Incorrect: Joni will travel to Dallas, Texas, Buffalo, New York, and Boston, Massachusetts.

For more information from Dona on teaching good grammar and good writing, go to http://www.thewriterstoolkit.com

We would like to thank LearningExpress eFolio for sponsoring this blog. eFolio is an automated essay scoring program, which allows teachers to assign more writing practice without the added hours of editing and correcting.