From the desk (and pen) of Dr. Norman Sissman (a real-life doctor!):
I suspect that many Kendal residents have spent agitated nocturnal hours awake, trying to decide when to use a semicolon or a colon when composing their contributions to the world’s literature. So — here comes the sleep doctor with his recommendation to relieve their grammatic insomnia. Be assured that my remedy has not been superficially or casually arrived at; I have consulted authorities from the 1959 revered classic, Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style, to the anonymous experts at Wikipedia (to whom we often turn for facts nowadays).
A semicolon joins two related clauses when neither is long enough or complete enough to stand as independent sentences. A colon introduces examples of a subject mentioned in the first part of a sentence; it can be replaced by the words, “which is/are” or “as follows.” Here is an example: “During his presidency, Donald Trump established policies that had detrimental effects on the prosperity and security of our country: cutting taxes on corporations and rich individuals, thus sending our national debt skyrocketing; closing a federal pandemic preparedness unit, thus allowing COVID to spread unnecessarily; withdrawing the U.S. from a treaty with Iran that had put on hold that country’s efforts to develop nuclear weapons; and encouraging a violent mob to storm a congressional building to try to reverse the legitimate results of a presidential election.”
So – read this prescription once daily at bedtime, and sleep well!
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Thank you, Dr. Sissman. We found Dr. Sissman’s explanation so compelling, that we wanted to know even more about the too-oft-denigrated semicolon. Where else would we go but to the Puncuationist of All Time (yes, that is a title we just made up, but it fits): The New Yorker’s Comma Queen, Mary Norris? She was, of course, profound. To learn even more about the semicolon, click below.