Semicolons and Periods

My favorite song about punctuation is “Semicolon” by The Lonely Island, featuring Solange.

Like many students, they don’t understand how to use semicolons properly. They sing a song about semicolons, while they are using examples of colons.

The semicolon is supposed to be used to indicate greater separation that a comma but less than a period. It is also used when there are too many commas in a sentence, such as: We got everyone together John, the baker; Jack, the Butcher; and Bartholomew, the candlestick maker. When using semicolons in a series, there should be one before the conjunction.

Run-on sentences are terrible things, which nobody likes because they go on and on and on, ending only when the grammar police go through and fix them with periods. Periods are important to helping the reader maintain their sanity. Periods signify the ending of a sentence. They end: declarative sentences, mildly imperative sentences, some rhetorical questions and indirect questions. Periods are placed inside quotation marks. Without periods, it would be difficult sorting out concepts and complete thoughts. A period should not be used at the end of a question or an exclamatory sentence. Some abbreviations and acronyms use periods, but not all of them. To find out which abbreviations use periods and which don’t, it is important to use a dictionary or the AP Style Book.

Punctuation is important in writing. A lack of punctuation turns an innocent sign into the most dangerous game: “Be careful when hunting pedestrians using walking trails.” It’s obvious; we must use punctuation in order to stop humans from hunting other humans. But seriously, it creates meaning and clarification for the reader.