In my ongoing quest to reduce my comma usage I've decided to look up semicolons.

[conuly]

On one hand, using semicolons instead of commas when either would do would absolutely reduce the number of commas in my writing.

On the other hand, I'd then look like the sort of dweeb who uses semicolons on reddit. And when I say I'd look that way, I mean I'd absolutely be that way. Plus, would I really be accomplishing anything besides fooling myself? What I really need to do is either a. let it go or b. start rewriting my sentences to be comma-free, ideally without making them choppy.

Hm.

Is it possible I want too much? Are all these goals actually achievable at the same time?

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Comments

[greenwoodside]

I thought by and large semi-colons replaced full stops rather than commas?

(Except when separating items on a long list, where some of the items themselves are long enough to need commas, so semi-colons are added for clarity. Though I guess in most situations these days that woudn't be an issue – for writing online I'd use bullet points.)

[greenwoodside]

Sorry, imagine the above said in the tones of an anxious semi-trained web editor who's having sudden Doubts About Punctuation.

Like a crisis of religious belief, but happening in middle age and possibly more traumatic.

[redbird]

I use a lot of semi-colons, especially when I realize that I have a long sentence, full of commas. Then I sometimes go back, and change semi-colons to periods. Also, as you say, they're useful for lists. (I remember seeing an example like "people came from New York City; Newark, N.J.; Washington, D.C.; and Moscow, Idaho," whereas the list "Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and Chicago" gets commas.)

Formally, you're supposed to use semi-colons for things that could be separate sentences, and commas otherwise. The sentence above doesn't have a semi-colon, because "and commas otherwise" doesn't work by itself as a sentence.

That's late-20th and early 21st century usage, and for American English. In works from the 19th century, commas sometimes indicate places where someone speaking would/should pause for breath and/or emphasis.

[brokenallbroken]

This is what I thought too. Perhaps some variety of dash instead?