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Use of semicolons by UK authors has dropped by nearly half over the past two decades. “Many writers hooked on semicolons become an embarrassment to their families and friends.” (I got a 10/10 on the semicolon quiz.)

Comments  4

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E
enbeecee

People need to get over the fear of punctuation. Period.

M
Mike

10/10 on the quiz; it was only semi-challenging.

M
mattrad

I do enjoy the appropriate use of good ol’ U+003B.

K
Katrei

Also 10/10. I had a friend in undergrad 3 decades ago who kept insisting on replacing my semicolons with colons, and would not accept that she was wrong. She was wrong.

But it's not a surprise that students these days can't use it. They don't teach grammar or punctuation in schools here, and the kids are supposed to pick it up by osmosis. (Spoiler alert: They don't.)

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