Comma chameleon
;
No it’s not part of an emoticon. Or a comma with an accidental black crumb quashed on top of it. Or a tiny dangly earring. It’s a semicolon.
What does it do? Well, look at it. it’s a comma and a full stop together which means it’s a combination of the two, as in, sometimes you want more of a pause but you’re not ready to finish the sentence yet.
It also can help to connect two ideas:
“I think; therefore I am.” Rene Descartes.
Or add an explanation to the first part:
“Celebrate failure; it means you took a risk.” Anonymous.
As the Oxford English Dictionary puts it: “A comma brings a pause; a semicolon brings the drama.”
But the sad news is that it’s on the out
Its usage in texts has plunged by almost a half in the last 25 years, according to research by Babble. Further research suggests that 67% of students rarely use it and only 11% of respondents described themselves as frequent users.
It’s easy to see why. They’re a little fussy for our tidy digital times.
But while I’m all for making things simple and helping people get to the point more quickly, there is a balance to be had. Because if you take all these little devices away, what are you left with? Plain, emotionless content.
Substitute the semicolon with a full stop for example and everything feels sharp and robotic - good now and again, but not all the time. There’s the em dash of course but it’s basic - sometimes we need more.
A bit of variety, a bit of rhythm.
A fag break within a sentence.
More space, more drama.
Sure semicolons are a little antiquated - like gold-top milk, Rolodexes and smoking jackets - but dropped into modern writing, they slow things down just enough to sound like we do when we actually speak. And we need tools like these more than ever if we want to create a feeling of relevance and realism to our output. Smooth, characterless, botoxed content be easy to digest, but is it memorable?
Pounds and prejudice
38% of Britons consider it vulgar or tacky to talk about money. Among Gen Z its 17%; among boomers it’s 50%.
Fowl play
KFC has launched a ‘fried chicken-flavoured’ toothpaste, inspired by its 11 herbs and spices and which is “irresistible, coating your teeth in flavour before leaving your mouth feeling fresh and clean.”
Dog’s world
There are now 13.5 million pet dogs in the UK, up from 8.3 million in 2011, according to The Observer.
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