4.4. The comma

Between the beginning of a sentence, which is marked by a capital letter, and the full stop indicating the end there will be normally other stops. Chief of these is the comma, which in many ways is the most important as it is the most difficult stop in punctuation. It is often used indiscriminately. Writers sometimes sprinkle commas on the paper like pepper out of a pepper-pot. But used properly, with a due regard for its rightful and varied functions, the comma is the writer's friend and ally in his efforts to communicate with the reader.

The comma is to be used:

(1) to indicate a small natural pause at the end of a phrase or a clause so that the sense of the passage should be quite clear:

Upon hearing from us, Messers Holden Sons, makers of the article you require, will get in touch with you.

When they had discussed the situation, the Committee adjourned for a week.

(2) to separate simple sentences which are not opposed to each other:

The door was quickly unlocked, and he entered. (M. Twain)

A faint wind moaned through the trees, and Tom feared it might be the spirits of the

dead complaining at being disturbed. (M. Twain)

(3) to separate homogeneous parts of a simple sentence in a series that has more than two members:

I had a bowler, a home, a nice little wife, a nice little baby, and a bank account (J. Cary)

Five minutes, ten minutes, a quarter of an hour went by, yet nothing came. (Ch. Dickens)

(4) to set off words denoting direct address:

"It was very nice of you to think of me, Mary darling," said Anne, smiling the tightcat's smile. (Al. Huxley)

Don't groan so, Tom, it's awful. (M. Twain)

(5) to separate words and phrases that might be incorrectly joined while reading:

After washing, the men filed into the dining tent. Above, the sun burned a dull red; below, the sand radiated heat like a furnace.

(6) after an introductory phrase or word, before and after anything that may be omitted without altering the main sense of the sentence:

However, this time she was, probably, a bit too categorical.

Unfortunately, most of the correspondence between Mark and his wife was later destroyed.

(7) to separate detached parts of the sentence:

The road to Lyvern lay through acres of pasture land, formerly arable, now abandoned to cattle, which made more money for the landlord than the men whom they had displaced. (B. Shaw)

The train coming in a minute later, the two brothers parted and entered their respective compartments. (J. Galsworthy)

Herr Paul, a small white flannel cap on his head, gloves on his hands and glasses on his nose, was watering a rosebush. (J. Galsworthy)

4.5. The semi-colon

In relation to the full stop, the semi-colon marks a smaller syntactical pause in the sentence. Some people call it a ‘three-quarter stop’. The semi-colon indicates also a smaller degree of separation in the sentence and a greater connection between its parts. In other words, the full stop used between the sentences says: “Here one idea ends and another one starts.” The semi­colon is used to say: “Here one idea ends and another one starts that has something to do with it.”

Here is an example to show what difference a semi-colon can make:

Janet has many friends. Her parents are very rich.

In this example, with a full stop between the two sentences, there is nothing to show whether the two ideas are connected with each other. Now look at it with a semicolon:

Janet has many friends; her parents are very rich.

Here the semi-colon says that there is a connection between Janet's many friends and the fact that her parents are very rich. It has turned a simple statement into an unpleasant remark.

As you see, a semi-colon shows the connection between two or more ideas without the use of a single extra word. It is a very fine tool of writing if you know how to use it; it helps the reader to read 'between the lines'.

A very common use of the semicolon is to mark off coordinate clauses (connected asyndetically) in long compound sentences, with commas used in it for subordinate divisions.

Sherburn ran his eyes slow along the crowd; and wherever it struck the people tried a little to outgaze him, but they couldn't; they dropped their eyes and looked sneaky. (M. Twain)

The moon was above, lustrous and serene; vehicles and pedestrians were few; sparrows twittered sleepily in the eaves - for a little while the scene might have been a country churchyard. (0. Henry)

There was no voice of rebuke; but there were averted eyes; there was a silence and an air of solemnity that struck a chill to the culprit's heart. (M. Twain)

The semicolon is also used to separate items in a list, particularly if there are commas in them.