ENGLISH PUNCTUATION Apostrophes Commas Semi-colons GRAMMAR Subject-Verb Agreement Verb Tense Pronoun – Antecedent Agreement Subject – Object Pronouns Adjectives and Adverbs SENTENCE STRUCTURE Fragments Run-ons Misplaced modifiers STYLE AND RHETORIC Adding / Deleting Information Organization Wordiness and Redundancy Word Choice and Tone SEMI-COLONS

ENGLISH SEMI-COLONS You know how to use a period, right? Obviously—periods mark where one sentence ends and another begins. Well, guess what? If you know how to use a period, you know how to use a semicolon. Now, they’re not exactly the same, but the concept is pretty close. A semicolon is used to connect and separate two complete thoughts at the same time. So basically, you have what could be two complete sentences, but you decide to combine them into one sentence. Additionally, since it is technically one sentence, you do NOT capitalize the word after the semicolon (unless it would normally be capitalized on its own, like a person’s name).

ENGLISH WHAT THESE QUESTIONS LOOK LIKE SEMI-COLONS

ENGLISH SEMI-COLONS Strategies To Win When trying to determine if a semicolon is used correctly, ask yourself:  Is the portion of the sentence before the semicolon a complete thought (could it be its own sentence)?  Is the portion of the sentence after the semicolon a complete thought (could it be its own sentence, too)?  Are the two halves of the sentence related in some way? If you can answer YES to all three questions, go ahead and keep the semicolon.

ENGLISH SEMI-COLONS Strategies To Win When trying to decide if you should add a semicolon to a sentence, ask yourself: Am I joining two complete thoughts (could the ideas in this sentence be expressed in two separate sentences)? If so, where does one complete thought end and the next one begin? Are the two complete thoughts related in some way? If you can answer YES to all three questions, go ahead and add in a semicolon.

ENGLISH SEMI-COLONS