Semicolons
A semicolon (;) is a punctuation mark with three uses: (1) in
complex lists (2) when a slight break is preferable to new sentence (3)
before conjunctions (e.g., and, or,
but) in certain circumstances.
Examples:
 The
following are invited: Mel, the expedition leader; James, the
medic; Paul, the communications expert; and Edwina, the
chef.
(In this list, the list items contain
commas. Therefore, semicolons can be used to separate the list items
instead of commas.)
No
one was seriously hurt in the accident; one boy broke his
finger.
(This could be written as two sentences, but
as a slight break was preferable, a semicolon was used.)
In
July 1992, the scorching summer caught everybody by surprise; but
Alan, who had been studying weather patterns for 30 years, predicted the
heat wave in January.
(When two sentences are merged using a
conjunction (and, or, but, etc.) and the sentences contain commas, it
is possible to use a semicolon before the conjunction. This is not a
common practice and is considered old fashioned by many.)
See also:
Glossary of grammatical terms
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