Semicolons and commas: A few simple guidelines
Summary
This article provides some simple punctuation guidelines.
Not quite sure where to put those commas?
Haven't used a semicolon since school?
Never fear. Here are four simple guidelines that will help you with one of the most common uses for both commas and semicolons: joining short sentences together.
When writing short sentences one after the other, an unpleasant stop-start effect can result. For example:
- Mr Renoir is a teacher. He is from Paris.
- Sample one worked. Sample two failed.
Joining short sentences together to form a single, longer sentence can avoid this stop-start effect. This is done using a combination of commas, semicolons and joining words like and, or and but.
Here are four guidelines to help you.
In the examples below, "[words]" represents any sequence of words that could stand by themselves as a sentence. For example, "he missed the ball" or "today is Monday". Similarly, "[joining word]" represents a word chosen from the left-most column.
Rule |
Joining words |
Punctuation |
|---|---|---|
1. |
[none] |
[words] ; [words] . |
For example:
- Mr Renoir is a teacher; he is from Paris.
- Sample one worked; sample two failed.
Rule |
Joining words |
Punctuation |
|---|---|---|
2. |
consequently |
[words] ; [joining word] , [words] . |
For example:
- It's just what we need; thus, our search is over!
- Sample one worked; however, sample two failed.
- He missed the ball; therefore, he loses four points.
Rule |
Joining words |
Punctuation |
|---|---|---|
3. |
i.e. |
[words] ; [joining word] [words] . |
For example:
- Choose a common name; e.g. John or Mike.
- Sample one worked; i.e. it yielded a positive result.
Rule |
Joining words |
Punctuation |
|---|---|---|
4. |
and |
[words] , [joining word] [words] . |
For example:
- I am Karen, and this is my sister Sue.
- Sample one worked, but sample two failed.
- Today is Monday, so tomorrow is Tuesday.
Notes
You can find more information on the difference between i.e. and e.g. here.
Note also that if, as, because and then are usually not preceded by a comma. For example, we write:
- Sample one worked because sample two failed.
not
- Sample one worked, because sample two failed.
