{"id":10269,"date":"2015-08-31T15:11:00","date_gmt":"2015-08-31T22:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev-crowdcontent.com\/?p=10269"},"modified":"2022-01-17T03:22:02","modified_gmt":"2022-01-17T11:22:02","slug":"semicolons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/resources\/writer\/university\/punctuation\/semicolons\/","title":{"rendered":"Semicolons"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Semicolons<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Oatmeal calls semicolons \u201c<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/theoatmeal.com\/comics\/semicolon\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">the most feared punctuation on earth<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u201d. If you\u2019re afraid, don\u2019t be! This lesson will be quick, easy, and solve your semicolon woes.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Join Independent Clauses<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">An <\/span><a title=\"Parts of Speech\" href=\"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/resources\/writer\/university\/grammar\/parts-of-speech\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">independent clause<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> is a complete thought with a subject and a verb; it can be a complete sentence. You can join independent clauses with either a comma and a coordinating conjunction, or with a semicolon<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Comma and coordinating conjunction: Today we\u2019re having lasagna for dinner<\/span><b>, and<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I\u2019m making apple pie for dessert.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Semicolon: Today we\u2019re having lasagna for dinner<\/span><b>;<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> I\u2019m making apple pie for dessert. <\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Comma and coordinating conjunction: Caitlin studies Russian literature<\/span><b>, and<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> she wants to be a professor.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Semicolon: Caitlin studies Russian literature<\/span><b>;<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> she wants to be a professor.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">As you can see, both of these methods work, but sometimes one sounds better than the other.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Note: Sometimes, especially in lengthy sentences, writers use a semicolon with a coordinating conjunction to avoid confusion.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Join Independent Clauses with a Conjunctive Adverb<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">This is the same principle as above. If your second independent clause starts with a <\/span><a title=\"Types of Conjunctions\" href=\"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/resources\/writer\/university\/grammar\/types-of-conjunctions\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">conjunctive adverb<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, you can join it to the previous independent clause with a semicolon, not with a comma.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px\"><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Trevor is a pizza fiend<\/span><b>; however<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">, he appears to be too full to eat the last slice.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px\"><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The weather forecast is awful<\/span><b>; therefore<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> we\u2019re going to stay home this weekend.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<h3>Reduce Confusion in Lists with Commas<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Look at this sentence:<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px\"><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I invited Karim, my best friend from high school, Maryam, my next-door neighbour, her sister, Sarah, and Yael.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">How many people did I invite? If you have no idea, you\u2019re right. In sentences like this, where there are modifiers set off by commas, it\u2019s best to use semicolons to separate the items on the list.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 30px\"><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">I invited Karim, my best friend from high school<\/span><b>;<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Maryam, my next-door neighbour<\/span><b>; <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">her sister, Sarah<\/span><b>; <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">and Yael.<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Now it\u2019s obvious that I invited four people.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">That was pretty painless, wasn\u2019t it?<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Learn More:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/theoatmeal.com\/comics\/semicolon\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Oatmeal: Semicolons<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.grammarbook.com\/punctuation\/semicolons.asp\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Grammar Book: Semicolons<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Semicolons The Oatmeal calls semicolons \u201cthe most feared punctuation on earth\u201d. If you\u2019re afraid, don\u2019t be! This lesson will be quick, easy, and solve your semicolon woes. Join Independent Clauses An independent clause is a complete thought with a subject and a verb; it can be a complete sentence. You can join independent clauses with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Semicolons | Crowd Content<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Semicolons The Oatmeal calls semicolons \u201cthe most feared punctuation on earth\u201d. If you\u2019re afraid, don\u2019t be! This lesson will be quick, easy, and solve\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/resources\/writer\/university\/punctuation\/semicolons\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Semicolons | Crowd Content\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Semicolons The Oatmeal calls semicolons \u201cthe most feared punctuation on earth\u201d. If you\u2019re afraid, don\u2019t be! This lesson will be quick, easy, and solve\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/resources\/writer\/university\/punctuation\/semicolons\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Crowd Content\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Crowdcontent\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-08-31T22:11:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-01-17T11:22:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/open-graph-crowdcontent-logo.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Laura Dohan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Laura Dohan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/resources\/writer\/university\/punctuation\/semicolons\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/resources\/writer\/university\/punctuation\/semicolons\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Laura Dohan\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/#\/schema\/person\/ad72d67b93df1bbc0477d4df26cd904c\"},\"headline\":\"Semicolons\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-08-31T22:11:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-01-17T11:22:02+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/resources\/writer\/university\/punctuation\/semicolons\/\"},\"wordCount\":343,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"Punctuation\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/resources\/writer\/university\/punctuation\/semicolons\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/resources\/writer\/university\/punctuation\/semicolons\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/resources\/writer\/university\/punctuation\/semicolons\/\",\"name\":\"Semicolons | Crowd Content\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-08-31T22:11:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-01-17T11:22:02+00:00\",\"description\":\"Semicolons The Oatmeal calls semicolons \u201cthe most feared punctuation on earth\u201d. If you\u2019re afraid, don\u2019t be! This lesson will be quick, easy, and solve\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/resources\/writer\/university\/punctuation\/semicolons\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/\",\"name\":\"Crowd Content\",\"description\":\"Crowd Content Media Inc\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Crowd Content\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/CrowdContent_logo_icon.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/CrowdContent_logo_icon.jpg\",\"width\":696,\"height\":696,\"caption\":\"Crowd Content\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Crowdcontent\/\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/crowdcontent\",\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/crowdcontent\/\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/crowd-content\/\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/CrowdcontentVideo\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/#\/schema\/person\/ad72d67b93df1bbc0477d4df26cd904c\",\"name\":\"Laura Dohan\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b4edf4c190573ac88c40378aa30301c4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b4edf4c190573ac88c40378aa30301c4?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Laura Dohan\"},\"description\":\"Laura is the Marketing and Community Manager at Crowd Content. She manages over 2000 content writers, content marketing, advertising, and community at Crowd Content. You'll see her popping in on the Crowd Content blog and on twitter, @laurdoh.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/crowdcontent.com\"]}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Semicolons | Crowd Content","description":"Semicolons The Oatmeal calls semicolons \u201cthe most feared punctuation on earth\u201d. If you\u2019re afraid, don\u2019t be! This lesson will be quick, easy, and solve","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/resources\/writer\/university\/punctuation\/semicolons\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Semicolons | Crowd Content","og_description":"Semicolons The Oatmeal calls semicolons \u201cthe most feared punctuation on earth\u201d. If you\u2019re afraid, don\u2019t be! This lesson will be quick, easy, and solve","og_url":"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/resources\/writer\/university\/punctuation\/semicolons\/","og_site_name":"Crowd Content","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Crowdcontent\/","article_published_time":"2015-08-31T22:11:00+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-01-17T11:22:02+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":630,"url":"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/open-graph-crowdcontent-logo.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Laura Dohan","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Laura Dohan","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/resources\/writer\/university\/punctuation\/semicolons\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/resources\/writer\/university\/punctuation\/semicolons\/"},"author":{"name":"Laura Dohan","@id":"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/#\/schema\/person\/ad72d67b93df1bbc0477d4df26cd904c"},"headline":"Semicolons","datePublished":"2015-08-31T22:11:00+00:00","dateModified":"2022-01-17T11:22:02+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/resources\/writer\/university\/punctuation\/semicolons\/"},"wordCount":343,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/#organization"},"articleSection":["Punctuation"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/resources\/writer\/university\/punctuation\/semicolons\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/resources\/writer\/university\/punctuation\/semicolons\/","url":"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/resources\/writer\/university\/punctuation\/semicolons\/","name":"Semicolons | Crowd Content","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-08-31T22:11:00+00:00","dateModified":"2022-01-17T11:22:02+00:00","description":"Semicolons The Oatmeal calls semicolons \u201cthe most feared punctuation on earth\u201d. If you\u2019re afraid, don\u2019t be! This lesson will be quick, easy, and solve","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/resources\/writer\/university\/punctuation\/semicolons\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/","name":"Crowd Content","description":"Crowd Content Media Inc","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/#organization","name":"Crowd Content","url":"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/CrowdContent_logo_icon.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/CrowdContent_logo_icon.jpg","width":696,"height":696,"caption":"Crowd Content"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Crowdcontent\/","https:\/\/x.com\/crowdcontent","https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/crowdcontent\/","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/crowd-content\/","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/CrowdcontentVideo"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/#\/schema\/person\/ad72d67b93df1bbc0477d4df26cd904c","name":"Laura Dohan","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b4edf4c190573ac88c40378aa30301c4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/b4edf4c190573ac88c40378aa30301c4?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Laura Dohan"},"description":"Laura is the Marketing and Community Manager at Crowd Content. She manages over 2000 content writers, content marketing, advertising, and community at Crowd Content. You'll see her popping in on the Crowd Content blog and on twitter, @laurdoh.","sameAs":["https:\/\/crowdcontent.com"]}]}},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10269"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10269"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36592,"href":"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10269\/revisions\/36592"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.crowdcontent.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}