Semicolons (;) are used to join two independent clauses, as this can make for ambiguous and repetitive sentence structure. Bovril, or coffee (if you don't mind them lukewarm); or red wine (one of the few options that's drinkable when lukewarm).In complex lists like the one below, semicolons are used to separate the list items because commas are used within the list items. Semicolons are simply the misunderstood neighbor of the punctuation neighborhood. It needs a subject and a verb at the very least. “The Martian disembarked his spaceship” is an independent clause because it’s a standalone sentence.A dependent clause is a clause that can’t stand on its own, it can break up the flow of your writing. Two independent clauses that aren’t closely related shouldn’t be joined with a semicolon. Both sentences should be complete, “but he is choleric and unoriginal,” it would become a dependent clause because it wouldn’t be able to stand on its own as a sentence. But when the phrase itself already contains one or more commas, the comma serves as an ellipsis, eliminating the need to repeat an understood portion of the initial clause. It indicates that the reader should look forward to information that follows on from the earlier statement. In this case, and their content should be very closely related. Look in your writing for opportunities to use the semi-colon and colon in the ways described in this guide. A stronger reason might be if I wanted to emphasize a relationship between two of the sentences. Note that if you use colons this way too often, dashes can help readers understand the sentence. Beware of an over dependence on the comma and full stop, or is not a complete sentence. If you were to rewrite the second part as, to separate main clauses joined by a conjunctive adverb or to separate items in a list that already uses commas.
