How to confidently use semi-colons in two easy steps

I love semi-colons. I take every opportunity to use them and hope that, by example, I encourage other people to use them (I hope this isn’t merely wishful thinking). To be honest, I have never understood why some people are afraid of using semi-colons; probably it’s more a fear of misusing them.

The semi-colon is an underused, yet powerful, punctuation mark. Just as our tone or hand gestures, for instance, can help us to be understood clearly when we speak, so punctuation helps us to communicate more clearly when we write. In the words of Lynne Truss, who wrote the bestselling guide to punctuation, Eats, Shoots and Leaves, “all our thoughts can be rendered with absolute clarity if we bother to put the right dots and squiggles between the words in the right places… If [punctuation] goes, the degree of intellectual impoverishment we face is unimaginable”. So, even though the semi-colon is not as commonly used as commas or full stops, it does have a very important role to play in helping us communicate our message as accurately as possible.

While I often hear people (myself included) complaining about the misuse of apostrophes, and overuse of commas and exclamation marks, the semi-colon doesn’t usually get a lot of attention. Although, oddly enough, the writer Kurt Vonnegut warned people against using them because “They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing absolutely nothing. All they do is show you’ve been to college.” On the opposite side, George Bernard Shaw advised fellow writer T.E. Lawrence, after reading his autobiographical Seven Pillars of Wisdom, “You practically do not use semicolons at all. This is a symptom of mental defectiveness, probably induced by camp life.” People are always going to disagree when discussing language and its nuances. Why not just take from this argument the fact that semi-colons should be used with care and consideration.

If you are feeling encouraged to use semi-colons, but are not completely sure how to, let’s refer to Swan’s Practical English Usage. Very simply, Swan explains the semi-colon has two uses.

1)  Instead of full stops, to join two grammatically independent phrases which have a closely connected meaning.

Some people work best in the mornings; others do better in the evenings.
It is a fine idea; let us hope that it is going to work.

If, however, either of the phrases are complex, it is better to use a full stop instead of a semi-colon:
It is a fine idea to cut back on advertising to save money this quarter. Let us hope that it is going to work, otherwise some jobs may have to be cut.

2)  In lists, when the items are complex or contain commas.

You may use the sports facilities on condition that your subscription is paid regularly; that you arrange for all necessary cleaning to be carried out; that you undertake to make good any damage; that you inform staff of any facilities that need fixing, cleaning or updating; …

To test your prowess with semi-colons, try these exercises.

“What’s another word for thesaurus?” (Stephen Wright)

A thesaurus is a great help if you want to increase your vocabulary. Whereas a dictionary gives you a definition and the pronunciation of a word, a thesaurus lists synonyms (a word or phrase which has the same or similar meaning as another word or phrase) and also sometimes antonyms (a word or phrase which has the opposite meaning of another word or phrase) of it.

The word ‘thesaurus’ comes from Latin and Ancient Greek, and means a collection of important or valuable things. The most well known modern thesaurus is ‘Roget’s Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases’ which the British Dr. Peter Mark Roget began work on in 1805, publishing it in 1852; it has not been out of print since. However, there are other examples even dating back to around 100AD – the Greek author Philo of Byblos wrote a dictionary of synonyms around this time.

It took Roget almost fifty years to single-handedly complete his thesaurus, although he did not devote himself entirely to it until he had retired from medicine in 1840. Even so, it was a huge achievement for one person. In comparison Samuel Johnson devoted nine years of his life to compiling the first English language dictionary and he had six assistants (all crammed into his attic, by the way).

The University of Glasgow’s English Language Department has spent more than forty years producing the ‘Historical Thesaurus of English’ (HTE). As its name suggests, this latest thesaurus does not just list synonyms, but groups words in chronological order beginning with the oldest from Old English up until the newest words of 2003; in total it covers more than 920,000 words. It is claimed to be the largest ever thesaurus and the first historical one in any language. You can find where a word came from and how it evolved over time. You can also search for words which were used during a particular period of time enabling you to find all the words Shakespeare had available to him meaning ‘happiness’, for instance. No wonder it took such a large team of people so many decades to complete it and from such humble beginnings (they started by writing words on individual slips of paper).

While for most of us the HTE will be too expensive (around £250) and even too cumbersome to have our own copy when it is published in October, the good news is it will be available online in the future, linked to the online version of the Oxford English Dictionary.

Getting your head around English spelling

or ‘Y iz Inglish speling sew difikult?’

Take care that you never spell a word wrong. Always before you write a word, consider how it is spelled, and, if you do not remember, turn to a dictionary. It produces great praise to a lady to spell well.
- Thomas Jefferson, from a letter to his daughter

English spelling causes problems even for native speakers, who often rely on dictionaries and spell checkers much more than speakers of other languages. Compared to other languages, English is arguably more irregular and more complex.

The English language has a complicated history, borrowing words from almost every other language (Latin, French, Greek, German, Arabic and Chinese just to name a few), often keeping the foreign spelling but pronouncing the word in an Anglicised way. For a large part of its history, achieving any kind of consistency in spelling was not considered important. The invention of the printing press, in the late 1400s, began to encourage conformity of spelling to a certain extent to make the process easier for printers. However, it was not until the mid 18^th century, when dictionaries began to be published (the most influential being Samuel Johnson’s ‘Dictionary of the English Language’, 1755), that English spelling really started to become standardised.

There are English spelling rules, but they can be quite difficult to remember because of their complexity, and, of course, there are always exceptions to these rules, as there are always exceptions to any rules. So, what can we do apart from carrying a dictionary around with us if we wish to be ladies and gentlemen who spell well?

Knowing just some of the English spelling rules will make you a more confident speller. One rule that many native English speakers repeatedly chanted at school is ‘I before E, except after C’. I still hear this in my head when I am unsure if a word is spelt with an ‘ie’ or an ‘ei’. The UK Government recently and controversially advised primary school teachers not to teach this rule believing it not to be effective because of the exceptions to it (for example, ‘seize’, ‘weird’ and ‘veil’), yet many people believe that it is worthwhile learning when it is a simple rule to remember and generally true.

You can also make up your own ways of remembering spelling including using mnemonics to aid your memory. I taught myself the difference between ‘stationery’ and ‘stationary’ by thinking that ‘stationERy’ is ‘papER’ and ‘stationAry’ is ‘inActive’. A past student who found it difficult remembering whether to double the ‘c’ or the ‘s’ in ‘occasionally’ made up the phrase ‘I watch The O.C. with my Cat occasionally’ to remind herself that the word started with ‘occ’. Even after more than twenty-five years, whenever I write the word ‘rhythm’, I hear my whole class loudly and rhythmically tapping out ‘R, H, Y… T, H, M…’ on our desks while our teacher ‘conducted’ us.

Finally, the more you use words that are particularly confusing for you in their written form, the easier it will be to remember the spelling. But, if you are still pulling your hair out, take heart in the words of a famous writer, who would have probably enjoyed, had he been alive today, the shorthand spelling that is normal in text messaging:

I don’t see any use in having a uniform and arbitrary way of spelling words. We might as well make all clothes alike and cook all dishes alike. Sameness is tiresome; variety is pleasing. I have a correspondent whose letters are always a refreshment to me, there is such a breezy unfettered originality about his orthography. He always spells “Kow” with a large “K.” Now that is just as good as to spell it with a small one. It is better. It gives the imagination a broader field, a wider scope. It suggests to the mind a grand, vague, impressive new kind of a cow.
- Mark Twain, speaking at a spelling match, reported in the Hartford Courant, 1875

One comprehensive list of spelling rules

200 most commonly misspelled words

Four Tips for a Better Essay

Understand the task

A very common mistake students of all levels make is either misunderstanding the task question or not answering the task question. You can waste time researching irrelevant information if you do not know what to focus on and you will never get a good mark if you do not answer the question.

Analyse the task carefully. Try to rewrite it in your own words. Highlight the key words and think about what you are being asked to do (for instance, do you need to give your viewpoint, discuss different sides of an argument or evaluate someone else’s ideas?). Do you have to write a specific text type, such as a report or an article? Also consider how the task relates to what you have studied.

If you can choose your own question you will need to spend time formulating it so it is concise and clear. If it is not clear in your own mind, it will not be clear in your writing nor to the reader.

Organise – be organised and organise your writing

Allow yourself enough time to research, draft, review and edit – this often takes longer than you think. As you research, keep an accurate record of the sources you use to avoid wasting time looking for them later.

Plan the structure of your essay before you start writing a first draft (see the previous post ‘Planning makes perfect’ for different types of plans). Think about the best order for your points, trying to achieve a fluent argument where one point logically flows from another. Well-organised writing enables the reader to see how your points relate to each other and therefore understand your meaning more clearly.

As you are writing, use linking words and phrases (e.g. nevertheless, furthermore or as a consequence) to join your ideas together and help make your writing more fluent.

Write clearly

One should not aim at being possible to understand, but at being impossible to misunderstand.
- Quintilian (Roman rhetorician, c. 35 – c. 100)

The purpose of your essay is to communicate information. For example, you may need to show you have understood the key concepts of a subject or that you are able to convey your own ideas. Regardless of your essay’s specific purpose you will also need to show you can write well and communicate your ideas.

Make sure your reader cannot misunderstand anything you write. Nor should the reader have to guess or search for meaning; tell him or her exactly what you mean. Check for unnecessary repetition and unnecessary words (we can often eliminate the word that from phrases), be specific rather than general or ambiguous, avoid sentences which are too long, and support your points with relevant examples. Be careful of using opinion words, such as interesting or arguably, without explaining why you have chosen to use them, and check that any pronouns you have used clearly refer to the correct noun.

Proofread and edit

Allow yourself enough time to thoroughly review your writing. It is best not to do this immediately, but to come back later with a fresh mind. It is even better if you can also give it to someone else to review.

Start by looking at the essay as a whole: have you answered the question? Do your points/ideas flow logically? Are you paragraphs correctly divided and clear? Then look at smaller details: is your meaning clear in every sentence? Are there any words or phrases which do not add anything to the meaning and so could be deleted? And finally the smallest features: spelling, grammar and punctuation.

What you should now have is an essay worthy of the time and effort you have put into it.

Planning Makes Perfect

It can be difficult to help people understand the importance of planning a piece of writing. Those of us who have taught writing will have sometimes felt that our advice has gone unheeded. Planning will definitely improve your writing and, like everything, the more you do it the easier it gets.

Professional writers spend a great deal of time preparing, considering different ideas and organising their thoughts before beginning to write. Even if you are not getting paid for your words, planning should always be your first step and it is one of the main ways to write more effectively.

Some people believe planning is a waste of time, that it is better to just start writing. Unfortunately they have not understood that planning actually saves time and effort later; it helps you organise your ideas and enables you to check you have all the information you need. A plan is like a road map guiding you through step by step. Without it you can get ‘lost’ on the way, wasting time wondering which ‘roads’ to take, perhaps even going round in circles. With a plan you will never have to ask yourself ‘What do I write next?’

You need to consider three things as you begin planning:

1. Purpose
- why are you writing or what is your reason for writing?

2. Reader
- who will read your writing and why will they read it?

3. Content
- what information is relevant to your purpose?
- what information will get your message across effectively to the reader?

Once you have identified these three factors you will have a clearer picture in your mind of what your finished piece of writing will be like. For instance, thinking about who might read your writing can help you decide the language to use: whether to use a formal or informal style, simple vocabulary or terminology only certain readers would understand, and so on.

Plans come in different shapes and sizes, depending on the writer and depending on what is being written. Try a few different ways to discover which are more effective for you. You can write a list of bullet points, draw a flow chart, create a mind map or write ideas on separate pieces of paper which you can move around to organise. If you are struggling for ideas, brainstorm as many possibilities as you can regardless of how relevant you think they are, write all of them down and then select the ones which relate to your intended purpose, reader and content.

Writing without a plan sends a very clear message to the reader: the writer is unsure which direction to go in. Avoid this fundamental error by practising your planning skills and not only will your writing improve, but you will also give readers confidence in your writing ability.

The Dying Art of Writing Clearly

I came across the BBC News Styleguide today and, while its intention is to help those working in broadcasting, it’s a very interesting read for those of us who enjoy discussing the intricacies of the English language.

Reading the guide’s selection of superfluous words and phrases, in other words tautologies, brought to mind examples commonly used in advertising, for example ‘free gift’, ‘added extra’, ‘new innovation’ and even phrases like ‘be more of a man’. Of course these types of unnecessary and sometimes meaningless repetition are not just confined to advertising. I have read on numerous occasions openings such as ‘In this essay I am going to write about…’. As William Strunk (the co-author of ‘The Elements of Style’) said, “Omit needless words… A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts.”

The guide has great advice for all of us who use English, in particular that the most important rule of writing is “to know what you want to say”. While that seems obvious and most people would agree without hesitation, unfortunately it’s often not put into practice. People start writing without having a clear purpose or reason for writing, sometimes even hoping that by the time they reach the end they will have found it! Readers can clearly sense this lack of focus, so filling up a webpage with too much unnecessary text won’t encourage them to stay. We always need a reason for writing, and we need to understand why we’re writing before we start.

On a final note, the following quote, while talking about the use of English on television, can equally apply to any use of English. “Television is a medium of mass communication. When its practitioners can no longer use the English language properly they cease to communicate effectively and the whole thing becomes pointless.” (Christopher Dunkley, Financial Times)

The purpose of language, after all, is to communicate, so if we can’t get our message across clearly is there any point?

Now I’m off to look at The Times Style and Usage Guide!

http://www.bbctraining.com/pdfs/newsstyleguide.pdf
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/tools_and_services/specials/style_guide/