Semicolon, Colon, Da

ENG302 : The Class : The Process : Final Preparation : Semicolon, Colon, Da
Punctuation: Semicolon, Colon, Dash

PUNCTUATION

The various symbols used to indicate stress, pause, and intonation are referred to as punctuation marks. Like most matters of correctness, the rules for punctuation change over time. Some of the most important current punctuation rules follow.

Other Punctuation Marks

Often punctuation marks indicate pauses, pitches, and stresses normally indicated by voice modulation in the spoken language. The semicolon, the colon, the dash, and the comma all link sentences and sentence parts together in varying degrees of looseness or tightness.

Semicolon

Mainly, the semicolon joins together independent clauses not already joined by a coordinating conjunction (and, but, or, nor, for, yet, so, etc.).

The semicolon indicates that the sentences on either side are closely related, yet could stand alone grammatically:

The surgeons went in without any prejudices; they came out without any illusions.

Words other than coordinating conjunctions, such as however, then, furthermore, and thus, can also be placed between two independent sentences by means of a semicolon.

The surgeons went in determined to save a life; however, they

were unable to fulfill their goal.

Colon

The colon has two structural features: to the left of the colon is a complete sentence; to the right of it is a specific enumeration or illustrations the sentence on the left.

Only six of our Travis County wells are producing enough oil:

B-6D, B-7D, B-8D, C-10D, D-10D, and D-11D.

Dash
The dash indicates a comment on or reevaluation of what went before.

We rushed into the Kemmerer leases-and quickly regretted it.

The writer can also use a pair of dashes to mark off an inserted phrase in a sentence. Such dashes indicate a high degree of pause or stress on the inserted clause.

The new office manager-who we later found out was not new at all-quickly set everything up exactly the way she

wanted it. (The most emphatic insertion)

The writer can lessen the degree of pause or stress by replacing the dashes with parentheses, or make the insertion the least emphatic by replacing the parentheses with commas.

The new office manager (who we later found out was not new at all) quickly set everything up exactly the way she

wanted it. (Less emphatic insertion)

The new office manager, who we later found out was not new at all, quickly set everything up exactly the way she

wanted it. (Least emphatic insertion)

E-mail Greg Larkin at Gregory.Larkin@nau.edu
or call (520) 523-4911

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