August 20, 2010

Semicolons and the Art of the Magazine

Correctly used semicolons signal that you know English well and want to help your readers follow the logic of your sentences.

Here’s an illustration. It’s from an excellent writer’s interview with the editor of a magazine that had just been redesigned:

“Joe and I both loved the old New Republic,” [editor Franklin Foer] says. “We felt that we were drawing on a really rich aesthetic tradition; magazines used to know how to make type look beautiful.”

– Emily Gordon, “Primary Colors,” Print magazine, November/December 2007

In other words, the New Republic‘s rich, individual design tradition stretches back to 1914; many magazines from the early twentieth century still look beautiful.

Foer knows that the second fact doesn’t follow automatically from the first. That’s what makes Gordon’s semicolon perfect.

•

Check out our new, one-page PDF “Semicolons: A Write It Well Guide”!

And for a thorough guide to punctuation in business writing, see our updated book Professional Writing Skills: A Write It Well Guide.

Could you use some help making sure your punctuation is correct, and your prose is engaging and easy to understand? Write It Well offers proofreading and editing servicesfor your or your employees’ business documents.

Just send us a document, noting any concerns or goals you have for it – e.g., whether the reader gets enough information from the text to understand your message. We’ll copyedit a sample portion for free and return it within two days.

You’ll get estimates of the cost and time frame for our sending you back a full, edited, engaging document that will make a great impression.