# Question about semicolon usage **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 18, 2014, 2:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-semicolon-usage/698789 "2014-09-18T02:31:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2014, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-semicolon-usage/698789/21 "2014-09-20T06:09:54Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > This isn’t just Gaudere’s law, but a particularly ironic case, given the OP. > > It’s a comma splice, which can be fixed by changing the second comma to a semicolon. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2014, 6:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-semicolon-usage/698789/22 "2014-09-20T06:30:07Z")
I have noticed that I have a bit of a tendency toward comma splices, especially in my posts here, but, although I accept that they are best avoided, I am not convinced that they are all that terrible a sin. Comma splices rarely give rise to any ambiguity (certainly not in this case), usually read smoothly enough, and, all in all, I do not really see that the rule against them is very much better motivated than such pointless rules as the one against splitting infinitives, or ending a sentence with a proposition. I am certainly not convinced that my sentence would have been improved by having a showy semicolon tripping you up in the middle of it, although I suppose it would have been more “correct”, if no more understandable, if it had been split into two sentences. ---
**Author:** ![wolfpup](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wolfpup/32/10618_2.png) [@wolfpup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wolfpup)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2014, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-semicolon-usage/698789/23 "2014-09-20T06:45:20Z")
FWIW, I agree. A comma splice is the mildest of errors if it can even be considered an “error” at all in very casual usage. As opposed to the case cited in the OP, which makes my head hurt somewhat as if it had been struck by the Linguistic Mallet of Stupid. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2014, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-semicolon-usage/698789/24 "2014-09-20T13:36:38Z")
Another place where the serial semicolon is useful is with city names. Consider: “I have relatives living in New York; Gary, Indiana; and Portland, Oregon.”. Replace the semicolons with commas, and that sentence becomes much more confusing. And I could have made it even worse, by using places like Indiana, Pennsylvania. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2014, 2:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-semicolon-usage/698789/25 "2014-09-20T14:20:13Z")
I welcome comma splices, especially if it makes parsing the sentence that much easier to digest. I personally like to keep semicolon usage to an absolute minimum, so I typically use comma splices instead. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2014, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-semicolon-usage/698789/26 "2014-09-20T17:28:02Z")
Tell your friend that I’m a teacher, too, and optionally add that I have a reputation as a radical descriptivist, and that I think her use of semicolons is totally wrong, wrong, wrong. ---
**Author:** ![MsKaren](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a183cd/32.png) [@MsKaren](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsKaren)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2014, 12:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-semicolon-usage/698789/27 "2014-09-21T00:04:19Z")
Here is one tutorial. [http://theoatmeal.com/comics/semicolon](http://theoatmeal.com/comics/semicolon) I agree that the OP’s friend’s sentence is awful, and I am wondering if this reference was used as is, discarded or corrected. ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2014, 2:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-semicolon-usage/698789/28 "2014-09-21T14:53:08Z")
Besides everything stated above, isn’t it a cardinal sin to follow a semicolon with an conjunction? “_extra-curricular leadership roles; and her specific career objectives_” ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 21, 2014, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-semicolon-usage/698789/29 "2014-09-21T15:31:06Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > I welcome comma splices, especially if it makes parsing the sentence that much easier to digest. I personally like to keep semicolon usage to an absolute minimum, so I typically use comma splices instead. Just break it into another sentence. Comma splices tend to drive me crazy. I’m pretty liberal grammatically, but those drive me nuts for some reason. My brain tends to hiccup on them, slowing down my comprehension. Put a period where the comma splice is, and I’m golden. In regards to the OP, I am with the consensus. It’s just a terrible sentence all around, even without the erroneous (or “non-standard,” if we’re being charitable) usage of the semicolons. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-semicolon-usage/698789.md?page=1)