I’ve spent fifteen years in publishing—working as a retailer, editor, copyeditor/proofreader, managing editor, production supervisor, and writer. As a result of these experiences, I have formed some opinions, many of them centered around how subjective the rules of grammar and language style are.
One of those opinions is that semicolons are the devil. I fucking hate them. Always have. Why? Not because of the mark itself, which I’m rather fond of. It is kind of quaint, yet often handy.
No, it’s because no matter how semicolons are used, or not used, you are pretty much guaranteed that someone along the editorial process will try to change them on you, often along with some snide comment that implies they know more about sentence structure than you do.
In some ways you can understand it, because most people really don’t know (or give a shit) what a semicolon is for. People in publishing, however, have spent a lot of time studying language, and want to make sure everyone around us knows how smart we are.
As a result, just about every writer, editor, copyeditor, and proofreader has an opinion about semicolons they’re happy to share as if is Ancient Law, but there is little general consensus. Some think they are NEVER necessary, and that if you can’t get by with a comma, you’re better off just rewriting the sentence. Others will throw them in any old place, like sprinkling salt in a soup. Many will accept them only under certain circumstances, like when you are connecting two independent clauses.
But the definition of “independent clauses” is itself a point for debate, as modern writing styles often present dependent clauses as independent sentences or statements, using context to fill in the blanks. A writer might want to insert a semicolon for proper cadence, even if one of the clauses isn’t strictly independent. Some editors have a strict and narrow definition of “independent”, while others take a broader view in line with the writer’s general style. Some have their opinion shift with the phases of the moon.
In my experience, any use of semicolons will throw up a flag with everyone in the editorial process, and sooner or later, someone, if not multiple people, will give you grief over it. Handy and quaint as they are, they’re a pain in the ass. I get agita just by looking at the damn button on my keyboard.
But sometimes a comma won’t do, and you like the sentence just the way it is. Lately, I’ve been experimenting with em dashes to take the place of those semicolons, and in some other tricky places as well.
Somewhere out there, right now, someone in publishing is itching to tell me that is improper use of em dashes.
Go ahead—I dare you.
Posted on March 8, 2010 at 1:34 am by PeatB
Filed under Craft, Musings, Writing
12 Comments »
It’s getting to be about that time!
