Page 92 - English for Writing Research Papers

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4.13 Consider not using semicolons

Semicolons (;) are not commonly used in modern English. If you tend to use a semi-
colon before introducing an additional idea or additional information, think about
using a period (.) instead.

By 1066 English, or Old English as it is known, was fi rmly established; it was a logical
language and was also reasonably phonetic. This situation changed dramatically when
England was invaded by the Normans in 1066; in fact, for the next 250 years French became

the official language, and when English did come to be written again it was a terrible con-
coction of Anglo-Saxon, Latin and French.
The author of the above extract used semicolons to show that the two parts of the
sentence to some extent depend on each other. Although this usage could be consid-
ered correct, today it is considered as unnecessary. Thus the two semicolons could
easily be replaced by full stops, with no change of meaning for the reader.

When we read we automatically pause for an instant when we reach a full stop. This
is our mental equivalent to pausing and inhaling air when we are speaking.
Semicolons don’t allow for such a pause and thus make the reading process slightly
more tiring. Semicolons also make the sentence look longer, which makes them
more tiring on our eyes.

Some writers also use a colon (:) in the same way as a semicolon. Again, if your
sentence is going to be very long as a result of using a colon, it is better to replace
the colon with a full stop and begin a new sentence.

S1. Old English had two distinct advantages over Modern English: it had a regular spelling
system and was phonetic.
S2. Old English, which was the language spoken in most parts of England over 1,000 years
ago, was a relatively pure language (the influence of Latin had not been particularly

strong at this point, and the French influence as a result of the Norman Conquest was yet

to be felt) and had two distinct advantages over Modern English: it had a regular spelling
system and the majority of words were completely phonetic.
S3. Old English was the language spoken in most parts of England over 1,000 years ago.
It was a relatively pure language since the influence of Latin had not been particularly

strong at this point, and the French influence as a result of the Norman Conquest was yet
to be felt. It had two distinct advantages over Modern English: it had a regular spelling
system and the majority of words were completely phonetic.

In S1 the use of the colon (:) is fine, because the whole length of the resulting
sentence is less than 20 words. But S2 is already too long even without the subsid-
iary clause introduced by the colon. S2 would in fact be better divided up into three
parts as in S3.