Computing Science

05. Punctuation - semi-colons

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Semi-colons have one major use: to link two complete sentences that are closely related. For example:

A semi-colon can often be replaced by a comma followed by ‘and’; or by putting in a different word like 'but' or 'because'; or by a full stop.

None of these versions have quite the same impact as the semi-colon version because parting sentences destroys the rhythm.

The most famous example of semi-colon use can be found at the beginning of some editions of Charles Dickens's A Tale of Two Cities.

Other editions use commas. There is no absolutely fixed rule.

Semi-colons can also be used to separate items within a list, if those items are quite long. For example:

TaskTask TypeDifficulty
Task 1Free textMore Challenging
Task 2Free textModerate
Task 3Multiple choiceEasier
Task 4Free textModerate
Task 5Free textModerate
Task 6Multiple choiceMore Challenging
Task 7Free textModerate
Task 8Multiple choiceEasier
Task 9Multiple choiceEasier