It begins with a squinting of the eyes. Hm. A semicolon. You approach it with caution. Ok, I can do this. One dot, plus a comma. There. No, wait. That doesn’t look quite right. The questions begin: ...

If you use the wrong one, you can always claim it was a typo. | Dominique James/iStock via Getty Images Plus Despite what its name suggests, a semicolon isn’t exactly just half a colon—it has its own ...

Semicolons must combine similar elements and are either used to combine complete sentences or items in a long, complicated list. Use semicolons in the following situations: Combine two complete ...

The most frequent use of the semi-colon is between two complete sentences. It can be substituted for a comma plus a conjunction. Ex: Tom ate breakfast with his family, and then he left for his trip.

A colon is used to give emphasis, present dialogue, introduce lists or text, and clarify composition titles. Emphasis—Capitalize the first word after the colon only if it is a proper noun or the start ...

For writers at work, punctuation can slip from a matter of convention to one of obsession. I just finished my poetry thesis last week, and I’m embarrassed to admit the number of times I changed ...

We are back in punctuation marks class today. We shall discuss semi colons (;) from what I will call another perspective. Based on my observations of how some confuse it with others like the full stop ...

When it comes to proper punctuation, choosing between an exclamation point and a question mark is child’s play. The semicolon-vs.-colon decision is a bit tougher to make. But even that can’t compare ...