Semi Colons

1. Semi Colons By: Amandla, Çemil, Laila & Malika

2. How Semi Colons are used: • A semi colon has only major use. It is used to join two complete sentences into a single written sentence when all of the following conditions are met: • (1) The two sentences are felt to be too closely related to be separated by a full stop. • (2) There is no connecting word which would require a comma, such as and or but. • (3) The special conditions requiring a colon are absentor when the elements in a series are long and complex.

3. Condition 1 • A semi colon can, in principle, be replaced by a full stop (period). • Ex: James affronted Marcus with rude comments about his mom; this led to a fight between them. • James affronted Marcus with rude comments about his mom. This led to a fight between them. • Another helpful way to think about is that a semi colon must be proceeded by a complete sentence and it must be followed by one. • Ex: An altercation was formed by the drivers of the car crash; the drivers nearly beat themselves up.

4. Condition 2 • While conjunctions are followed by commas there are connecting words that do require a semi colon. They are however, therefore, hence, thus, consequently, nevertheless and meanwhile. • Ex: When Joanne went over the speed limit and crashed into another car, she was arrested for the breach; however, she was bailed out of jail by Nancy and Prudence.

5. Condition 3 • This is the one special circumstance in which a semi colon may be used to separate sentences which are not complete sentences. • Ex: In Somalia, where the civil war still rages, decimating the population, western aid workers are unable to operate, and the people, starving, terrified and desperate, are flooding into neighboring Ethiopia.

6. Condition 3 (continued) • In Somalia, where the civil war still rages, decimating the population, western aid workers are unable to operate; and the people, starving, terrified and desperate, are flooding into neighboring Ethiopia. • As you can see placing a semi colon after the word operate has made reading this sentence much more manageable. • It is important to note that you should avoid doing this; however, if you happen to have a lot of commas in your sentence you are better off just rewriting it.

7. Practice • Using the rules that we have given you identify where the semi colon should be placed in the following sentences: • The general of the army had very bellicose tactics to fight the war some might think these strategies to be quite inhumane. • Because my mother is so contentious, we got into over three arguments yesterday. The last one didn’t end well.

8. Practice (continued) The dissension between the two was obvious they could never get along. Her extreme rancor for the organization was evident but understandable. After the crook got away, our hero vowed to get retribution he developed his plan immediately. A schism occurred within the party when the two leaders Sally and Georgina had a fight that’s why there are now two different groups.

9. THE END