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.
And why not go one step further and check out the Comma Queen’s brief video on, yes, the mighty semicolon.