Semicolons

[alongtimegone]

Robbie and I have been caravanning for the last ten weeks and I found the wifi network in most parks to be difficult to log into, so mostly didn't bother trying. Instead when not fishing, I read. I really liked the following comment on grammar from characters in Jodi Picoult’s The Storyteller.

Darija:
“In our world there will be no semicolons.”

Sage:
“Seems indecisive doesn’t it? Either be a period or be a comma, but make up your mind.”

[Heather]

No. Semi colons are very useful little critters; I love semi colons.

[Shelley Hansen]

I love them too, Heather - but people seem to be using them less and less these days

And at the risk of opening another of those debates - dare I say - I love colons too! And nobody uses them any more - they use semi-colons where we used to use colons and use commas where we used semi-colons .... no wonder the country's in a mess!!!

And awesome has replaced bonzer ... and OMG has replaced bloody hell ... and guys has replaced blokes (and sheilas too) ... and last year at work one of the young men spoke about getting DIAPERS for his newborn son! That's when I knew I had to retire

Cheers, Shelley

[Bob Pacey]

Never been much interested in colons myself unless the Doc says I need one of those Colonoscopys




Bob

[Shelley Hansen]

Oh ha ha! I suppose I should have seen that one coming

[Zondrae]

G'day all,

My problem with both colons and semi-colons is that I have no idea how or when to use them. I have ventured a few times to use a semi colon in a poem but I am never sure. I have had a judge comment once that I used too many commas. These days people use very little punctuation. I have even seen poems with none at all. This makes it hard to know where sentences begin and end.
Imagine trying to read a poem with no full stops or commas and a capital at the beginning of every line.