[gmw]

Originally Posted by arjaybe

Thank you for these. I put my responses inside your spoiler tag. [...]

Spoiler:

I suggested: "... fantastic together; the two most ..." - I think a period would work as well here, for this paragraph - all the sentences relate to this daydreaming in a similar way.

You responded: The second phrase wouldn't be a complete sentence. I chose to not rewrite.

In that case I think it should be joined to the main clause using a comma not a semi-colon. (In this context a semi-colon is normally used to join complete sentences without a conjunction.)

My use of commas tends to swing a bit with my mood - which is not a great thing. I try to clean up a bit while editing, but have never really managed complete consistency - I'm not sure it's possible. While I agree that prose should avoid overuse of commas, there are places where they are needed for clarity. It's sort of funny because - according to my preferences - you tend to the side of using too few, while Graham tends to the side of too many ... and there's a good chance my preferences are wrong anyway.

I used to use semi-colons more than I do now. Because of the feedback I've received from readers, I look at every use and try to eliminate those that aren't important to my purpose. The semi-colon has dropped out of favour, and it seems that people not used to reading classics tend to stumble over them.