Punctuation often has quite a hard time these days and there still remains a considerable amount of confusion as to its proper use. The semi-colon is certainly no exception and over time, its use has become a little blurred. So, let's look at the five essential rules for the correct use of semi-colons.

One - It is used to break up a sentence where a pause needs to be more pronounced than that of a comma. Remember also that whatever follows a semi-colon needs to relate to what preceded it. Here's an example:

Her hobby was collecting foreign stamps; nothing pleased her more than her large collection of stamps from all over the world.

Two - It is best to use the semi-colon before words such as however, therefore, that is, for example. These are introductory words. An example is:

You will need some items if you want to collect stamps; for example, a stamp book, glue, tweezers, paper and, of course, lots of stamps.

Three - Use the semi-colon between two sentences joined by a conjunction (and, but) if one or more commas are in the first sentence:

When I finish gluing in these stamps, I will do the washing up; and that is a promise.

Four - Always use it outside of quotation marks. Semi-colons never remain inside quotation marks:

Staring at her stamps she said, "What a wonderful collection"; she always said the same thing each time she admired her stamp books

Five - Use it for making lists. For example:

She rearranged her possessions on the table: two stamp books; three pots of glue; four pencils, a new pair of tweezers; and a magnifying glass.

So, as you can see, there are many uses for the semi-colon and it pays to bear the rules in mind when you are writing your texts. It should also be noted that even though the semi-colon is often used instead of a colon, there are differences between these two punctuation marks. As mentioned previously, whatever follows the semi-colon needs to relate to what precedes it, but unlike with a colon, this does not need to be a summary or a clarification or a list.

KJ Hutchings is the founder of KJ Language Services, offering editing, writing and proofreading services and advice on how you can make your English language documents the very best they can be. For more information, visit http://www.kjlanguageservices.com/.