Our Friend the Semicolon Capital Community College Our
- Slides: 14
Our Friend, the Semicolon © Capital Community College
Our Friend, the Semicolon Let’s begin with a simple sentence: Grandma stays up too late. © Capital Community College
Our Friend, the Semicolon Now let’s expand on that a bit: Grandma stays up too late. She’s afraid she’s going to miss something. This is OK. Two independent ideas, separated by a period. © Capital Community College
Our Friend, the Semicolon What if we try to combine the two ideas? Grandma stays up too late, she’s afraid she’s going to miss something. Something’s wrong. We connected two independent clauses with only a comma. The dreaded COMMA SPLICE! © Capital Community College
Our Friend, the Semicolon We could insert a coordinating conjunction: Grandma is afraid she’ll miss something, so she stays up too late. This is better! Note the comma that accompanies the coordinating conjunction. © Capital Community College
Our Friend, the Semicolon We could also try subordinating one of these ideas: Grandma stays up too late because she’s afraid she’s going to miss something. Notice that the comma disappeared. One idea (the second one) now depends on the other; it has become a dependent clause. © Capital Community College
Our Friend, the Semicolon But let’s try something else. © Capital Community College
Our Friend, the Semicolon Let’s try using a semicolon in this sentence. ; Grandma stays up too late she’s afraid she’s going to miss something. Notice there is no conjunction used with this semicolon – either subordinating or coordinating. Just the semicolon, all by itself. © Capital Community College
Our Friend, the Semicolon Sometimes semicolons are accompanied by conjunctive adverbs – words such as however, moreover, therefore, nevertheless, consequently, as a result. Grandma is afraid she’s going to miss something; as a result, she stays up too late. © Capital Community College
Our Friend, the Semicolon Notice the pattern: ; as a result, semicolon + conjunctive adverb + comma This is a typical construction with semicolons. © Capital Community College
Our Friend, the Semicolon There is one other use of the semicolon: to help us sort out monster lists, lists like this one: The committee included Peter Wursthorn, Professor of Mathematics, from Marlborough, Connecticut, Virginia Villa, Professor of English, from Hartford, Connecticut, Paul Creech, Director of Rad-Tech, from Essex, Connecticut, and Joan Leach, Professor of Nursing, from Farmington, Connecticut. © Capital Community College
Our Friend, the Semicolon Be careful where you insert semicolons in this sentence. The committee included Peter Wursthorn, Professor of Mathematics, from Marlborough, Connecticut; Virginia Villa, Professor of English, from Hartford, Connecticut ; Paul Creech, Director of Rad-Tech, from Essex, Connecticut ; and Joan Leach, Professor of Nursing, from Farmington, Connecticut. © Capital Community College
Our Friend, the Semicolon Now you know everything you’ll ever need to know about using semicolons! © Capital Community College
This Power. Point presentation was created by Charles Darling, Ph. D Professor of English and Webmaster Capital Community College Hartford, Connecticut copyright November 1999 © Capital Community College
- Semicolon dash semicolon
- Hello my friend friend of a friend
- Hello my friend
- Interrogative adverbs
- Capital community college grammar
- A good friend must be
- Foaf a matic
- A friend in needs a friend indeed
- I've found a friend oh such a friend
- Jn 15:13
- American sitcom friends
- Gross working capital
- Source of capital reserve
- Multinational cost of capital and capital structure
- Difference between capital reserve and reserve capital