Technical writing: how to use semicolons correctly in your technical documents?

A technical writer should use semicolons in a sentence to separate closely related complete sentences or independent clauses that can actually be transformed into independent sentences.

Semicolons are great for separating items in a list that includes both names and titles or attributes.

Here are some examples:

“Occasionally a statement is so long that it requires an A-size text box; text editing is of course another solution to the problem.”

“Visitors cannot enter the site after sunset; the guards will not allow it.”

“Awaiting the auction was a Picasso, valued at $ 23 million; a Pollock, valued at $ 13 million; and a magnificent Van Gogh, previously sold to a Japanese banker for $ 90 million.”

“Our team will deliver the first draft on January 10 as promised; notification to the review team for quick turnaround time is appreciated.”

“The sign said” Do not stop under any circumstances, “so we didn’t.” [NOTE that the semicolon follows the second quotation mark. A comma, on the other hand, would be INSIDE the second quotation mark.]

“The index has not been compiled with care; therefore, you must rewrite it.”

ASSIGNMENT:

What do you think of the following sentences? Are semicolons used correctly or are they missing? How would you correct them?

a) “On the way to California we stopped in Boston, Massachusetts, Cleveland, Ohio, Austin, Texas and Kansas City, Kansas.”

b) “Violation of traffic laws is an abomination that causes many deaths every year.”

c) “The regression test revealed the weakness of the software, so we hired a new coordination manager.”