It begins with a squinting of the eyes. Hm. A semicolon. You approach it with caution. Ok, I can do this. One dot, plus a comma. There. No, wait. That doesn’t look quite right. The questions begin: ...

The semicolon may have a reputation as being the most aloof and intimidating of all punctuation marks. It’s stronger than a comma but lacks the finality of a period. In any case where you might want ...

Here’s a fun thing you can do with your writing: Take any two simple, clear sentences and use a semicolon to mush them into one. For example, imagine you have a paragraph with just two sentences. “The ...

The semicolon is a much-misused, often maligned, but elegant and useful piece of punctuation. Neither a period nor a comma, the semicolon links in some instances and divides in others. There's no need ...

Save guides, add subjects and pick up where you left off with your BBC account. Semicolons can be used to separate parts of a sentence. They can also separate two main clauses or grouped items in a ...

It is a piece of punctuation that has divided writers and authors for centuries. Novelists including Virginia Woolf and Jane Austen have not shied away from using them, but that has not stopped ...

It's divisive; it cleaves; it drives some people crazy. The writer Kurt Vonnegut said of the semicolon: It's showy; it's chiefly used to show you've been to college. More than two-thirds of young ...

When combining two complete sentences with a conjunction ("and," "but," "or," "for," or "yet"), precede the conjunction with a comma. Example: Still, the sun is slowly getting brighter and hotter, and ...

Semicolons can be used to separate parts of a sentence. They can also separate two main clauses or grouped items in a list. Semicolons can also help to simplify lists by showing which items are ...