The Semicolon

Welcome back.

While tutoring English, punctuation is a constant concern.  Using a variety of punctuation leads to sentence variety – something that always impresses English teachers.

The semicolon can be used in many ways, but its simplest use is to join two short, but complete sentences.

a)  The weather turned to rain.  They canceled the game.

can become

b)  The weather turned to rain; they canceled the game.

The construction in b) brings the writing to a much higher level.  Note that even though the semicolon joins two complete sentences, the resulting sentence can still be pleasantly short and inviting to read.

Don’t overuse semicolons.  A few times a page is enough.

Happy writing. See you next time.

Jack of Oracle Tutoring by Jack and Diane, Campbell River, BC.