Semicolons in Compound Sentences

Use a semicolon to separate independent clauses in a compound sentence.

To vary the sentence construction, a semicolon can be used in place of a comma and a coordinating conjunction to separate the independent clauses in a compound sentence.

Below are four examples of the effective use of semicolons to separate independent clauses in a compound sentence. In each of the examples, notice that the independent clauses separated by a semicolon have a very close thematic and grammatical relationship to one another. The independent clauses in the examples use parallel sentence structure and the repetition of key words to establish this close relationship.

I play tennis like a professional I play baseball like a child.

The writer is comfortable with a typewriter the designer is comfortable with pencil and paper.

Kleiva, Kathy. "CAD: Friend or Foe?" The Harper Anthology. Palatine: William Rainey Harper College, 1996. 58.

Well-drained soils have brownish or yellowish-brown subsoils somewhat poorly drained subsoils are mottled yellowish, brownish, and grayish and poorly drained soils have bluish-grayish subsoils.

Tadros, Marilyn. "Illinois Soils: Glaciers to Tallgrass." The Harper Anthology. Palatine: William Rainey Harper College, 1996. 102.

My Lady Dedlock is restless, very restless....To-day she is at Chesney Wold yesterday she was at her house in town to-morrow she may be abroad...

Dickens, Charles. Bleak House. New York: Penguin, 1964. 230-31.