Semicolons: Not Just for Wink Faces

So, as I've been writing and going through the editing process, I've gotten some input from one of my published friends that surprised me.

Don't use semicolons.

This took me by surprise, since I figured that because they were a part of our language's mechanics, they should be included in writing. Here's what Professor Google has to say, as is generally agreed upon by most style guides I've seen:

Use a semicolon when joining two related independent clauses of equal weight, value or rank. When doing so, they are to be joined by two conjunctive adverbs or transitional phrases.

That's a mouthful of academic mumbo-jumbo. But what it comes down to is this: you can use a semicolon when you're writing, as long as the two independent clauses (sentences, essentially) deserve equal rank, because that's what the semicolon provides.

Instead, this author told me to use an em dash (—). I do like this solution, although I find it's not as precise, but hey. It gets the job done, and people don't complain. Here's what Professor Google had to say about that:

The em dash is perhaps the most versatile punctuation mark. Depending on the context, the em dash can take the place of commas, parentheses, or colons—in each case to slightly different effect. Notwithstanding its versatility, the em dash is best limited to two appearances per sentence. 

So, can the em dash take the place of semicolons? Sure. Should they? Maybe not. If you're looking at a formal document, it might not be a good idea to have a ton of dashes in your writing. To my eye at least, having a lot of dashes implies there are a lot of breaks within the writer's train of thought—that he or she can't decide what to say, so he or she just throws an extra idea in the middle of a sentence. This feels almost lazy. Don't get me wrong, though. I agree with the idea of the em dash completely. I use it quite often, but I try not to use it any more than once every 250 words or so. Or more words, if I can manage it. I don't want my final copy to look scatterbrained in any way, and I often worry that a lot of dashes leads to such an assumption.

However, having too many semicolons in a document is bad, too. If you go overboard with them, the reader will most likely feel lost, thinking you're throwing an academic brick at them when you're just throwing marbles. Using them can lead to sentences becoming bloated, confusing and overlong. But used correctly, they can make your writing sing.

So here's my takeaway. Semicolons are good. Use them. But you have to remember that a lot of copyeditors might think they know how to use them when they actually don't. That's true of a lot of people, but hopefully you'll be more sensible with them from now on. Editors (especially fiction editors) will look at a piece and if they see a lot of semicolons, they're going to take points off because it looks complicated; on the other hand, if you use a good mixture of the two, people won't notice either one as much, and your writing comes off as more professional and you can keep things clear and precise.

Until next time,
Jeff
;-)