The semicolon is the comma's first cousin, but it works a little bit harder; it also makes you look smarter. Find out when to use a semicolon.

The age-old semicolon is dying out as Britons admit to never or rarely using the punctuation mark. In English-written 19th century literature it appeared once in every 205 words, but today it is ...

Not only are semicolons evidently becoming more rare, but young people are less aware of how to use them, according to a survey ...

The Nation: Semicolon, Hyphen And No Serial Comma It looks like the serial, or Oxford, comma is becoming an punctuation mark of the past — but who cares? Maria Kari of The Nation, that's who.

In fact, another author might have written it that way–Jackson was a frequent semicolon user. But be careful. A comma followed by “and” won’t work in every case.

The New Yorker: “Sympathy for the Semicolon” — “Among my fellow punctuation nerds, I have a reputation as someone who has no use for semicolons. I don’t hate semicolons; I hate writing ...

No piece of punctuation, though, stirs people up more than the humble semicolon. Too demure to be a colon but more assertive ...