Writers Aren't Using Semicolons Anymore

Seeing a semicolon is becoming increasingly rare; it seems that writers—especially young ones—don't understand how to use them. Instances of the misunderstood piece of punctuation in English-language books has dropped by nearly half in the past two and a half decades from once every 205 words in 2000 to just once in every 390 words today, the Guardian reports. A survey of British students commissioned by the language-learning platform Babbel revealed that 67% never or rarely use the punctuation mark, and more than half admitted they don't know how to use it correctly. "The semicolon has become a symbol of overthinking," says grammar expert Lisa McLendon, who conducted the quiz portion of the study. "Many people just skip it entirely."

First introduced in 1494 by Italian printer Aldus Pius Manutius the Elder, the main purpose of the semicolon as defined by the Oxford dictionary is to indicate a pause in writing, usually between two main clauses, that is "more pronounced than that indicated by a comma." But this murky role somewhere between commas and periods has led to confusion over the years, which has made it easy to misuse or avoid entirely. Kurt Vonnegut famously told writers to avoid the semicolon altogether: "All they do is show you've been to college." And Lynne Truss, author of Eats, Shoots & Leaves, went even further, calling it "dangerously habit-forming."

Still, the quirky punctuation mark has always had its fans. Charles Dickens, Mark Twain, Jane Austen, and even Abraham Lincoln stood up for the semicolon. Lincoln famously said, "I have a great respect for the semicolon; it's a very useful little chap." Virginia Woolf included more than 1,000 in the classic Mrs. Dalloway, while modern authors like Salman Rushdie and John Updike each average 300 semicolons for every 100,000 words. In fact, while young writers may not be using semicolons all that often, Google Books Ngram Viewer, which includes novels, nonfiction, and scientific literature, shows a 27% uptick in semicolon use since 2017. As McLendon puts it, "There's still a place for the semicolon; it just needs better PR." (More grammar stories.)