Your Friend and Mine- the Semicolon

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Your Friend and Mine- the Semicolon

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Use a semicolon to join independent clauses

• My dad is a coach at the university. We get free
  tickets to any sports event we want to see.
• (Better version) My dad is a coach at the
  university we get free tickets to any sports
  event we want to see.
• (wrong) My dad is a coach at the university we
  have cousins who live in Texas. (ideas not
  closely related)

3
Use a semicolon before however and similar words
that show a relationship between two complete
sentences.

• (wrong) I bet you thought you wouldnt have to
  learn another semicolon rule, however, you were
  wrong.
• (right) I bet you thought you wouldnt have to
  learn another semicolon rule however, you were
  wrong.

4
Do not use a semicolon before a conjunction when
you are joining together two complete sentences.

• (wrong) I have three dogs and two of them are
  golden retrievers.
• (right) I have three dogs two of them are golden
  retrievers.
• (also right) I have three dogs, and two of them
  are golden retrievers.

5
Use semicolons between items in a series that
contain a lot of commas.

• (confusing) Wesley likes books about baseball,
  biplanes, and bagels, Brian likes books about
  antique cars, blimps, and rare fish, and Tori
  likes books about racehorses, dolls, and military
  jets.

6
To avoid confusion, use semicolons to separate
items in a series.

• (Better) Wesley likes books about baseball,
  biplanes, and bagels Brian likes books about
  antique cars, blimps, and rare fish and Tori
  likes books about racehorses, dolls, and military
  jets.

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Brain Ticklers Find the goofs in the sentences.

• I want to see the ninja movie, I also want to see
  the new Spider-Man movie, too.

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Possible Fixes

• I want to see the ninja movie I also want to see
  the new Spider-Man movie, too.
• I want to see the ninja movie, and I also want to
  see the new Spider-Man movie, too.
• I want to see the ninja movie. I also want to see
  the new Spider-Man movie, too.

9
Fix the error.

• I like chocolate cake my dad cooks great
  spaghetti.
• (These two sentences are not closely related, so
  the semicolon is wrong.)
• I like chocolate cake. My dad cooks great
  spaghetti.

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Another practice sentence

• I love the colors green, blue, and red, and the
  names Vanessa, Charlotte, and Cassandra, and the
  states Iowa, Idaho, and Illinois, but not the
  foods anchovies, olives, and eggplant.
• This is very confusing! This sentence needs a
  healthy dose of semicolons.

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The fix

• I love the colors green, blue, and red the names
  Vanessa, Charlotte, and Cassandra the states
  Iowa, Idaho, and Illinois but not the foods
  anchovies, olives, and eggplant.

12
Find the error

• I have lived in Wichita, Kansas, Norman,
  Oklahoma, Lakeland, Florida, Warner Robbins,
  Georgia, and Nashville, Tennessee.

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Heres the fix

• I have lived in Wichita, Kansas Norman,
  Oklahoma Lakeland, Florida Warner Robbins,
  Georgia and Nashville, Tennessee.

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The last one

• I hoped it would snow, finally, it did.
• (A comma is not strong enough here. Both of these
  are correct)
• I hoped it would snow finally, it did.
• I hoped it would snow. Finally, it did.