by Jennie Ruby
You need a semicolon to separate items in a list when a comma will not cause a clear enough separation between the items. This usually happens when the items themselves contain commas. In fact, even if just one of the listed items contains a comma, you can no longer use commas to separate the items. You have to use semicolons. Here are some examples:
- The three boys' birth dates are January 15, 2004; February 10, 2003; and March 9, 2005.
- The publishing house has three locations: Paris; London; and Avignon, France.
In the first example, each date contains a comma, so semicolons are needed to separate the dates. In the second example, only the last item contains a comma, but you need semicolons between the other two to prevent a reader from thinking you mean all three cities are in France.
Here are some additional examples:
- The column width can be increased to accommodate the length of the data, the row height can be increased to accommodate more than one line of data, and the page width can be set to equal the combined widths of the columns.
(Even though each item is a complete sentence, you need only commas between the items because they do not contain commas.)
- The application consists of the start module, containing the default settings; the change module, containing the individual settings for a particular instance; and the stop module, containing the final settings after the changes are instituted.
(Each item contains a comma; semicolons separate the three items on the list.)
About the Author:
Jennie Ruby is a veteran IconLogic trainer and author with titles such as "Essentials of Access 2000" and "Editing with MS Word 2003 and Adobe Acrobat 7" to her credit. Jennie specializes in electronic editing. At the American Psychological Association, she was manager of electronic publishing and manager of technical editing and journal production. Jennie has an M.A. from George Washington University and is a Certified Technical Trainer (Chauncey Group). She is a publishing professional with 20 years of experience in writing, editing and desktop publishing.Want help with a grammar issue? Email us your troubles and we'll turn Jennie loose!