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User:Tangerineduel/Sandbox 2: Difference between revisions
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→Replacement for other types of "sentence glue"
(→Inverted commas or quotation marks: +semi-colons section) |
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Semicolons are largely a matter of personal preference. Many people never use semi-colons in their everyday writing, yet they can be quite correct in their punctuation. A semi-colon is largely an ''alternative'' to a conjunction or a full stop, generally used to suggest there's a fairly close, even causal, relationship between two sentences. | Semicolons are largely a matter of personal preference. Many people never use semi-colons in their everyday writing, yet they can be quite correct in their punctuation. A semi-colon is largely an ''alternative'' to a conjunction or a full stop, generally used to suggest there's a fairly close, even causal, relationship between two sentences. | ||
'''Correct''': The Doctor didn't care; he was going whether the Brigadier liked it or not. | :'''Correct''': The Doctor didn't care; he was going whether the Brigadier liked it or not. | ||
'''Correct''': The Doctor didn't care. He was going whether the Brigadier liked it or not. | :'''Correct''': The Doctor didn't care. He was going whether the Brigadier liked it or not. | ||
'''Correct''': The doctor didn't care, because he was going whether the Brigadier liked it or not. | :'''Correct''': The doctor didn't care, because he was going whether the Brigadier liked it or not. | ||
All of these are correct. It's really just a stylistic choice that can help vary one's sentence construction in an article. What's ''not'' correct is: | All of these are correct. It's really just a stylistic choice that can help vary one's sentence construction in an article. What's ''not'' correct is: | ||
'''Incorrect''': The Doctor didn't care, he was going whether the Brigadier liked it or not. | '''Incorrect''': The Doctor didn't care, he was going whether the Brigadier liked it or not. | ||
====For clarity in lists==== | ====For clarity in lists==== | ||
If you're listing long series of things, semi-colons help make the border between listed items clearer. This can be vital if one's list include a lot of clauses set off by commas. Consider the following: | If you're listing long series of things, semi-colons help make the border between listed items clearer. This can be vital if one's list include a lot of clauses set off by commas. Consider the following: | ||
