Semicolon vs. Period?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by G J Lau

I checked out the definition of a semicolon at GrammerBook.com and thought it was also excellent.

I would personally be wary of taking grammatical advice from a site which is apparently incapable of spelling the word "grammar".

[FredGill]

A semicolon may be regarded as an average of a comma and a period :-)

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I would personally be wary of taking grammatical advice from a site which is apparently incapable of spelling the word "grammar".

Although, Harry, exceedingly sound advice -- and, BTW, the same advice I often give my colleagues -- I have learned in recent years to not waste my breath. Too many "professional" editors and too many non-editors who believe they are as good an editor as a person who has worked as an editor for decades live by the one sacrosanct creed: If it's free, it's got to be an impeccable source.

I once had a "medical editor" tell me that she did not need to own a copy of any of the leading American medical dictionaries because she could tell when a word was correctly spelled just by looking at it; after all, she had been a medical transcriptionist for x years before becoming an editor. She then went on to list the online sites that she checked should she need confirmation. I forget now exactly how many sites she used, but it was just a very few -- and each was riddled with errors. Their saving grace, however, was that they were free.

And so it goes with grammer (or is it grammar?), too.

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by VydorScope

At the end of the day it seems that there is no rule when to use or not use semicolon over a period. It seems to be all stylistic.

Not true. There are relatively clear rules when not to use them. Sometimes rules are negative rather than positive.

[mr ploppy]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I would personally be wary of taking grammatical advice from a site which is apparently incapable of spelling the word "grammar".

It's probably meant to be funny, like saying we should ban apostrophe's

[AlexBell]

Originally Posted by rhadin

Not true. There are relatively clear rules when not to use them. Sometimes rules are negative rather than positive.

Could you tell us what those rules are, please?

[Prestidigitweeze]

People who expect the English language to have absolute rules without (i) exceptions or (ii) the requirement of painfully logical usage must find a copy immediately of The Reader over Your Shoulder, by Robert Graves and Alan Hodge. You don't have to agree with every decision they make, but you do have to understand which decisions are being made and why.

The reason people feel that periods (for independent clauses) and commas (for an elaborate series) seem more correct than semicolons is because post-Hemingway style is telegraphic and has only gotten more so over time.

I happen to love the use of semicolons in writers like Thomas De Quincey, Henry James and Sir Thomas Browne -- the sense of symphonic and oceanic fluidity -- but most of the time, modern readers don't like or understand them. They've become a kind of distraction; they're treated as pieces of driftwood floating over what readers generally prefer to be a smooth flow of commas and end punctuation (see what I did?). So unless I'm deliberately writing in an archaic or meta style, or confecting densely referential literary criticism for an academic audience, I tend to replace nearly all the semicolons in my writing during revisions.

[rhadin]

Originally Posted by AlexBell

Could you tell us what those rules are, please?

See post #4 in this thread for examples.

[AlexBell]

Originally Posted by rhadin

See post #4 in this thread for examples.

Thank you

[VydorScope]

Originally Posted by rhadin

Not true. There are relatively clear rules when not to use them. Sometimes rules are negative rather than positive.

Disagree. There is no rule either way on when to use a ; versus a . which was my original question. Seems to be 100% stylistic. Every example given in the thread could go either way with.

[Suzanna]

Originally Posted by Prestidigitweeze

The reason people feel that periods (for independent clauses) and commas (for an elaborate series) seem more correct than semicolons is because post-Hemingway style is telegraphic and has only gotten more so over time.

I happen to love the use of semicolons in writers like Thomas De Quincey, Henry James and Sir Thomas Browne -- the sense of symphonic and oceanic fluidity -- but most of the time, modern readers don't like or understand them. They've become a kind of distraction; they're treated as pieces of driftwood floating over what readers generally prefer to be a smooth flow of commas and end punctuation (see what I did?). So unless I'm deliberately writing in an archaic or meta style, or confecting densely referential literary criticism for an academic audience, I tend to replace nearly all the semicolons in my writing during revisions.

(Bolding mine.)

This, exactly. I have a specialist degree in English lit, and very few of the courses I took were modern literature, so I know how to use a semicolon and I'm used to seeing them when I read classics/older novels. They don't phase me then. Without fail, though, they always pull me out of a book when I'm reading a modern novel. They stand out like sore thumbs, pulling me away from the story itself and making me aware of the author's writing mechanics.

[Freeshadow]

So in other words: people don't use semicolons any longer, because the proper use of language degrades.
sounds like cases of improper (or missing) use of grammar in German.

Reminds one of the race between programmers and the universe; bigger and better idiots, eh? So far the universe is winning...

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Sao

They don't phase me then. Without fail, though, they always pull me out of a book when I'm reading a modern novel. They stand out like sore thumbs, pulling me away from the story itself and making me aware of the author's writing mechanics.

Why? I use semicolons all the time in my writing; they are a useful grammatical tool. What do you find to be distracting about them?

[Suzanna]

They just seem so Victorian lit to me. I can't help it. I stop each and every time I see a semicolon in a contemporary novel. I wish I didn't.

(And to be completely contrary, I'll admit I'm a devotee of the Oxford Comma. )

[HarryT]

What would you have used in place of the semicolon in the sentence that I wrote, above? A comma? A dash?