Why I Hate The Semicolon and Other Rules.

When people find out I’m a writer they usually assume that I’m a stickler about grammar as if I were their 6th grade English teacher.

When actually, the exact opposite is true.

Because I’m a copywriter I care that the message is clear. Especially in casual conversation. I’m never the person jumping into the conversation just to correct that someone typed “your” instead of “you’re.” It is impossible to say the wrong “your” when speaking.

As long as the message is clear, then we’re good.

Just to be clear, I don’t apply this lax standard to client work.

But good copywriting is more about clarity and emotional impact, and less about perfect grammar.

Which brings me to the semicolon.

A semicolon is like a comma except there's no conjunction.

So if you wanted to write something like... 

"The butter was hot and pancakes always taste better with hot butter"

But then let's say that you just wanted a pause instead of the word and. Your instincts might guide you towards replacing the word and with a comma, like this.

"The butter was hot, pancakes always taste better with hot butter."

People read the sentence they know what a comma means, there's a pause and the sentence keeps going.

Now wait just a second because we've got a problem. You see that comma isn't TECHNICALLY correct, and it SHOULD be a semicolon.

I bet if you walked into your grocery store and asked 10 people how to use a semicolon most of them, in fact probably all of them wouldn’t know the answer.

Your copywriting edits should ask "does this make the sentence clear, or give it impact?" And you should be less concerned with edits that sound like "There is an invisible rule book about words and according to that rule book there is a violation according to clause blah blah."

The point of writing is never to satisfy the rules. The rules cannot read your writing and they never will. The point of writing is to communicate to the reader. Writing should act like telepathy, it takes the ideas in my brain and sends them into your brain. What determines if the writing is good, is if the message is accurate. If what ends up in your brain closely resembles the idea in my brain, then the writing has served its purpose, and the writer succeeded.

At no point during that process does someone go... "Hey wait a second this comma should be a semicolon and because of this error the message is now muddled." This MAY occur in some instances in academia. But most readers aren't scholars. And satisfying the rules was never the point of writing in the first place.

Now there are exceptions, as much as I hate to say this, there are times you should use the semicolon. In settings that are either academic or otherwise professional white-collar. You shouldn’t use semicolons in your email blast to pet owners. But if you’re putting together a pitch deck to try and secure millions from investors then use the semicolon. (Just don’t expect me to be happy about it.)

-ANDYOUT