Eva John asked Shervin Jamali:

Whom do you contend uses the semi-colon incorrectly? It is a versatile form of punctuation, as evidenced by our built-in grammar software on our computers. I've used it and gotten the green highlight, whereby I immediately pulled out my "Writers Inc." book for reference only to find that it could be used or not without compromising the integrity of the sentence.

Shervin Jamali What an unusual, yet thoroughly wonderful question, Maria! A semi-colon is used to separate two or more ideas in a sentence, giving them equal rank. It is versatile indeed, as you mentioned, and no one can really argue that it can or can't just as easily be replaced by a period (as you've also alluded to). My take on it being used incorrectly, is when the two ideas or independent clauses, have no bearing on one another. But what is most important is that regardless, it's still winking at you! ;)
Thanks for your question!

flag