Click to edit Master title style,Click to edit Master text styles,Second level,Third level,Fourth level,Fifth level,Capital Community College,Our Friend,the Semicolon,Our Friend,the Semicolon,Lets begin with a simple sentence:,Grandma stays up too late.,Our Friend,the Semicolon,Now lets expand on that a bit:,Grandma stays up too late.,Shes afraid shes going to miss something.,This is OK.Two independent ideas,separated by a period.,Our Friend,the Semicolon,What if we try to combine the two ideas?,Grandma stays up too late,shes afraid shes going to miss something,.,Somethings wrong.We connected two independent clauses with only a comma.The dreaded,COMMA SPLICE!,Our Friend,the Semicolon,We could insert a,coordinating conjunction,:,This is better!Note the,comma,that accompanies the coordinating conjunction.,Grandma is afraid shell miss something,so she stays up too late.,Our Friend,the Semicolon,We could also try,subordinating,one of these ideas:,Grandma stays up too late,because,shes afraid shes going to miss something,.,Notice that the,comma,disappeared.One idea(the second one)now depends on the other;it has become a,dependent clause,.,Our Friend,the Semicolon,But lets try something else.,ENTER THE SEMICOLON!,Our Friend,the Semicolon,Lets try using a,semicolon,in this sentence.,Grandma stays up too late,;,shes afraid shes going to miss something.,Notice there is,no conjunction,used with this semicolon either subordinating or coordinating.,Just the semicolon,all by itself.,Our Friend,the Semicolon,Sometimes semicolons are accompanied by,conjunctive adverbs,words such as,however,moreover,therefore,nevertheless,consequently,as a result.,Grandma is afraid shes going to miss something,;as a result,she stays up too late.,Our Friend,the Semicolon,Notice the pattern:,;as a result,semicolon+conjunctive adverb+comma,This is a typical construction with semicolons,.,Our Friend,the Semicolon,There is one other use of the semicolon:to help us sort out,monster lists,like this one:,The committee included Peter,Wursthorn,Professor of,Mathematics,from Marlborough,Connecticut,Virginia,Villa,Professor of English,from Hartford,Connecticut,Paul,Creech,Director of,Rad,-Tech,from,Essex,Connecticut,and,Joan Leach,Professor of Nursing,from Farmington,Connecticut.,Our Friend,the Semicolon,Be careful where you insert semicolons in this sentence.,The committee included Peter,Wursthorn,Professor of,Mathematics,from Marlborough,Connecticut,;,Virginia,Villa,Professor of English,from Hartford,Connecticut,;,Paul,Creech,Director of,Rad,-Tech,from,Essex,Connecticut,;,and,Joan Leach,Professor of Nursing,from Farmington,Connecticut.,Our Friend,the Semicolon,Now you know everything youll ever need to know about using semicolons!,CONGRATULATIONS,This PowerPoint presentation was created by,Charles Darling,PhD,Professor of English and Webmaster,Capital Community College,Hartford,Connecticut,copyright November 1999,