Is the Semicolon Worth Saving?

reblog from The Thursday File

by Richard Nordquist -- April 13, 2009

The author of The Gutenberg Elegies, English professor Sven Birkerts, once said in an interview, "I never see a sentence with a semicolon in it anymore. People don't tend to read the kind of writing that has semicolons. We tend to read the prose of the age, and the prose of the age, influenced by the ethos of electronic communication, is almost overwhelmingly flat, punchy and declarative.''

Birkerts made that observation a decade ago--well before the arrival of such punctuation killers as Facebook, Twitter, and the iPhone.

What we'd like to know is whether you have any use for the semicolon and if you think the mark is worth preserving.

Some Say Yes

Not many people use it much any more, do they? Should it be used more? I think so, yes. A semicolon is a partial pause, a different way of pausing, without using a full stop. I use it all the time.
(British novelist Beryl Bainbridge)

With educated people, I suppose, punctuation is a matter of rule; with me it is a matter of feeling. But I must say I have a great respect for the semi-colon; it's a useful little chap.
(President Abraham Lincoln)

You practically do not use semicolons at all. This is a symptom of mental defectiveness, probably induced by camp life.
(George Bernard Shaw to T.E. Lawrence, on The Seven Pillars of Wisdom)

Sometimes you get a glimpse of a semicolon coming, a few lines farther on, and it is like climbing a steep path through woods and seeing a wooden bench just at a bend in the road ahead, a place where you can expect to sit for a moment, catching your breath.
(American essayist Lewis Thomas)


Some Say No

Do not use semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites, standing for absolutely nothing. All they do is show you've been to college.
(American novelist Kurt Vonnegut)

As readers require information in segments that are shorter and easier to read, semicolons are becoming a less desirable form of punctuation. They encourage overlong sentences that slow down both reader and writer. You can virtually eliminate semicolons and still be a fine writer.
(Deborah Dumaine, Instant-Answer Guide to Business Writing, 2003)

Did you know by the way that this book [Coming Up for Air] hasn't got a semicolon in it? I decided about that time that the semicolon is an unnecessary stop and that I would write my next book without one.
(British novelist and essayist George Orwell in a letter to his editor at Secker & Warburg)

Too many semicolons are tedious for the reader. Semicolons are also more characteristic of formal or literary writing, which means that some readers may not be accustomed to them. If your readers don't understand the semicolon, it will be more of a distraction than an aid.
(Jill Meryl Levy, Take Command of Your Writing, 1998)