{"id":31,"date":"2017-06-19T22:54:20","date_gmt":"2017-06-19T22:54:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/olemiss-writing100\/chapter\/semicolons-the-connectors\/"},"modified":"2025-05-28T17:22:11","modified_gmt":"2025-05-28T17:22:11","slug":"semicolons-the-connectors","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/olemiss-writing100\/chapter\/semicolons-the-connectors\/","title":{"raw":"Semicolons: The Connectors","rendered":"Semicolons: The Connectors"},"content":{"raw":"Semicolons serve as connectors in two ways:\r\n\r\nFirst, a semicolon can connect two complete ideas (a complete idea has a subject and a verb) that are related to each other and\/or equal. Look at this sentence for example:\r\n<div class=\"textbox\">Anika\u2019s statue is presently displayed in the center of the exhibit; this location makes it a focal point and allows it to direct the flow of visitors to the museum.<\/div>\r\nThe first idea tells us where Anika\u2019s statue is, and the second idea tells us more about the location and its importance. Each of these ideas could be its own sentence, but by using a semicolon, the author is telling the reader that the two ideas are connected. Often, you may find yourself putting a comma in the place of the semicolon; this is incorrect. Using a comma here would create a run-on sentence. Remember: a comma can join a complete idea to other items while a semicolon needs a complete idea on either side.\r\n\r\nSecond, the semicolon can be used to hold items together in a list in which items have internal commas. For example, say you\u2019re listing a series of cities and their states or listing duties for a r\u00e9sum\u00e9:\r\n<ul>\r\n \t<li>As a photographer for National Geographic, Renato had been to\u00a0a lot of different places including S\u00e3o Paulo, Brazil; Kobe, Japan;\u00a0Kyiv, Ukraine; and Barcelona, Spain.<\/li>\r\n \t<li>As an engineering assistant, I had a variety of duties: participating in pressure ventilation surveys; completing daily drafting, surveying, and data compilation; and acting as a company representative during a roof-bolt pull test.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<div class=\"textbox tryit\">\r\n<h3>practice<\/h3>\r\n<iframe title=\"Do the following sentences need a semicolon or a comma? Click one or the other for each sentence and check your answers.\" src=\"https:\/\/h5p.tcwms.org\/wp-admin\/admin-ajax.php?action=h5p_embed&amp;id=54\" width=\"959\" height=\"353\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><script src=\"https:\/\/h5p.tcwms.org\/wp-content\/plugins\/h5p\/h5p-php-library\/js\/h5p-resizer.js\" charset=\"UTF-8\"><\/script>\r\n\r\n<\/div>","rendered":"<p>Semicolons serve as connectors in two ways:<\/p>\n<p>First, a semicolon can connect two complete ideas (a complete idea has a subject and a verb) that are related to each other and\/or equal. Look at this sentence for example:<\/p>\n<div class=\"textbox\">Anika\u2019s statue is presently displayed in the center of the exhibit; this location makes it a focal point and allows it to direct the flow of visitors to the museum.<\/div>\n<p>The first idea tells us where Anika\u2019s statue is, and the second idea tells us more about the location and its importance. Each of these ideas could be its own sentence, but by using a semicolon, the author is telling the reader that the two ideas are connected. Often, you may find yourself putting a comma in the place of the semicolon; this is incorrect. Using a comma here would create a run-on sentence. Remember: a comma can join a complete idea to other items while a semicolon needs a complete idea on either side.<\/p>\n<p>Second, the semicolon can be used to hold items together in a list in which items have internal commas. For example, say you\u2019re listing a series of cities and their states or listing duties for a r\u00e9sum\u00e9:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>As a photographer for National Geographic, Renato had been to\u00a0a lot of different places including S\u00e3o Paulo, Brazil; Kobe, Japan;\u00a0Kyiv, Ukraine; and Barcelona, Spain.<\/li>\n<li>As an engineering assistant, I had a variety of duties: participating in pressure ventilation surveys; completing daily drafting, surveying, and data compilation; and acting as a company representative during a roof-bolt pull test.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"textbox tryit\">\n<h3>practice<\/h3>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Do the following sentences need a semicolon or a comma? Click one or the other for each sentence and check your answers.\" src=\"https:\/\/h5p.tcwms.org\/wp-admin\/admin-ajax.php?action=h5p_embed&amp;id=54\" width=\"959\" height=\"353\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><script src=\"https:\/\/h5p.tcwms.org\/wp-content\/plugins\/h5p\/h5p-php-library\/js\/h5p-resizer.js\" charset=\"UTF-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\t\t\t <section class=\"citations-section\" role=\"contentinfo\">\n\t\t\t <h3>Candela Citations<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t <div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <div id=\"citation-list-31\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t <div class=\"licensing\"><div class=\"license-attribution-dropdown-subheading\">CC licensed content, Original<\/div><ul class=\"citation-list\"><li>Semicolons. <strong>Provided by<\/strong>: Lumen Learning. <strong>License<\/strong>: <em><a target=\"_blank\" rel=\"license\" href=\"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/\">CC BY: Attribution<\/a><\/em><\/li><\/ul><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t <\/div>\n\t\t\t <\/section>","protected":false},"author":163,"menu_order":6,"template":"","meta":{"_candela_citation":"[{\"type\":\"original\",\"description\":\"Semicolons\",\"author\":\"\",\"organization\":\"Lumen Learning\",\"url\":\"\",\"project\":\"\",\"license\":\"cc-by\",\"license_terms\":\"\"}]","CANDELA_OUTCOMES_GUID":"0143a0e6-aa33-45ea-a534-e1c6f61def2e, 88212f68-1510-4956-afa2-bc2b9545333e","pb_show_title":"on","pb_short_title":"","pb_subtitle":"","pb_authors":[],"pb_section_license":""},"chapter-type":[],"contributor":[],"license":[],"class_list":["post-31","chapter","type-chapter","status-publish","hentry"],"part":23,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/olemiss-writing100\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/31","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/olemiss-writing100\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/olemiss-writing100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/chapter"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/olemiss-writing100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/163"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/olemiss-writing100\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/31\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1715,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/olemiss-writing100\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/31\/revisions\/1715"}],"part":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/olemiss-writing100\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/parts\/23"}],"metadata":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/olemiss-writing100\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapters\/31\/metadata\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/olemiss-writing100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"chapter-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/olemiss-writing100\/wp-json\/pressbooks\/v2\/chapter-type?post=31"},{"taxonomy":"contributor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/olemiss-writing100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/contributor?post=31"},{"taxonomy":"license","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/olemiss-writing100\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/license?post=31"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}