Combining Sentences Using Semi-Colons and Colons

Sentence Combining Using
the Colon and the Semicolon
Variety in sentence construction adds
sophistication to your writing.

Monday, April 16, 2012 CM & FM Matthew

Review of Sentence Basics
• The sentence is the basic unit of meaning in
English
• Every sentence must be coherent, expressing
a single thought or a relationship between
thoughts
• Every sentence must contain a subject and a
predicate
• What error is found in every bullet point on this slide?

Monday, April 16, 2012 CM & FM Matthew 1

Subjects
• A subject is the thing the sentence is talking
about. It can be simple or compound.
– Bob ate the apple.
– Peter and Pam are happily married.
– What did Ron eat yesterday?
– Frank, the butcher’s son, Herbert, the rock star,
Penelope, the aspiring actress, and Tonia, the
student body president, complained.
– Jane sings.

Predicates
• A predicate is what the sentence says about the
subject. Predicates, like subjects, can be simple
or complex.
– Peter ate two loaves of day-old bread, gobbled three
questionable chicken legs, nibbled fourteen rotten
plums, drank a liter of soda, wolfed down a pizza he
found in the trash and devoured the Snickers bar he
found in bomb shelter rations.
– Jane sings and dances.
– Jane and Bob love eating and singing.

Varying sentence structure
• Many students stick to simple sentences because they
are safe, but without a variety of sentence structures,
writing can sound very simplistic. (Note that short
simple sentences can occasionally be effective when
used to show emphasis, and to show a change of
pace.)
– I like plums. I don’t like liver. My mother likes liver. She
eats anything. She grew up in a small town. Her family
was poor. They didn’t have money for meat. Especially
good cuts of beef. But sometimes they could afford liver.
So my mother learned to like liver. (Note that not all of
these sentences are correct: the last three are sentence
fragments.)


Conjunctions
• The main coordinating conjunctions are and,
but and or. Nor, for, so and yet can also be
used as coordinating conjunctions; they might
add variety to your writing, but it is more
difficult to use them correctly.
• Coordinating conjunctions combine elements
that have the same value. When a
conjunction combines two independent
clauses, it must be fortified with a comma.


Combining with conjunctions
– Bob and Jane smiled. (Two Nouns/Subjects)
– Jane ran and swam. (Verbs)
– The sleigh ran over the river and through the woods.
(Prepositional Phrases)
– Peter, the farmer, and Judy, the beautician, ran the
local dairy for twenty years. (Noun with appositive)
– Petronille was the fan’s favorite and the judges
darling. (Object of the sentence/Predicate noun)
(Note that none of these coordinating conjunctions
require a comma before the conjunction.)

Nouns in a series
– Note that when items are listed in a series, you
can replace the word ‘and’ with a comma. You
cannot replace ‘and’ with a comma between the
last two items in the series, so you need not add
the comma. Sounds confusing, but it simple to
understand when you see the following examples.
– The sleigh ran over the river, around the town,
between the towers and through the woods.
– Jackie, Tito, Jermaine, Marlon and Michael were
pop icons.


Independent Clauses
• An independent clause is basically a simple
sentence. It contains a subject and a
predicate.
– You should run around the park.
• (Note: There is a type of sentence called a
command which has an implied subject you.)
– Eat the apple.
– Run!


Exclamations
– An exclamation does not necessarily end with an
exclamation point. It can end with a full stop or even
a question mark, but it is not a sentence. It is,
however, grammatically correct. (Note that
exclamations are informal, and many of them are not
to be used in polite or academic speaking or writing!)
– Drat!
– Wow. (Sarcastic)
– Bang, bang!
– Oh, booger!


Combining Independent Clauses
• When combining two independent clauses,
neither a comma nor a conjunction is strong
enough to do the job alone, so usually they do
the job together, just as they have in this
sentence.
X A comma splice is not a complete sentence, it
attempts to combine two independent clauses
with a comma alone, just as this incorrect
sentence has done.


Combining Independent Clauses
X A run-on sentence isn’t just a sentence that runs on
for too long but it is a mistake because it combines
two independent clauses with a conjunction and
no comma, just as this incorrect sentence has
done.
- Actually, a good writer can write a really long sentence which is far to long to be easily
comprehensible, even if it is, strictly speaking, correct; some writers actually make a career
out of writing brilliant, yet annoyingly long sentences that last for half a page while adding
little or nothing to the content of the story or essay they are writing, and thought some
people might say that this makes little rhetorical sense, others would argue that it
demonstrates a certain genius which manifests itself in only the rarest of authors, the kind of
which comes along every century or so, or perhaps even less frequently if one takes into
account that many of these ‘brilliant’ authors are only briefly famous and do not stand the
test of time as Shakespeare, Dickens or, though I hate to admit it, Austen have done; such
sentences, as you have probably surmised, demonstrate a certain level of ability – some
would say arrogance – on the part of the author while being so incomprehensible that they
are hardly worth the effort the reader takes to decipher them.


Semicolons
• The semicolon is stronger than a comma. It
has the ability to combine two independent
clauses which are closely related.
– Bob ate the apple; Jane ate the fig.
– I like the colors the painter used; I don’t like the
subject matter.
– I went to Harvard; Penelope went to Yale.
– My parents wanted me to go to study law; I had
subjects in mind.

Colons
• Colons, like semicolons, combine two independent
clauses which are closely related, but in the case of the
colon the second clause explains the first. As a result
you can sometimes test the use of the colon by
replacing it with the subordinating conjunction
‘because’. Using a colon adds a bit of emphasis to the
second clause.
– Bobate the apple: he was hungry.
– The reasons for the fight were many: for years the boys
had been feuding over math grades, their favorite football
clubs, their favorite colors and their love for Judy, the
beautician from slide seven.


Extended Sentence Combining
When writers get better at sentence combining, they
can be more creative with their expression.
– Peter did not like his boss: then again, Peter was
pretty lazy, and he did not like work much at all.
– Katambo, Hazel, Marvin, HansandMiguelate Oreos
and drank milk until the wee hours of the morning;
they were celebrating because the boss had finally
had enough of Peter’s laziness: the office really
hadn’t been a happy place since Peter promotion to
office manager the year before.
– Jane wants to go sky diving; I want to go lie on the
beach. (Note that in this sentence the semicolon is
combining contrasting, but closely related ideas.)

Incorrect Uses of the Colon
• It is incorrect to put a dash after a colon.
X Bob ate the apple:- he was hungry.
• In spite of what some word processors will tell you,
there are two spaces after a colon just as there are
after a period. This keeps a paragraph from looking too
crowded and jammed up.
• Though colons are often used to introduce lists, it is
technically incorrect to use them for anything other
than sentence combining. However, this use is very
common, so it is probably fine to use it in informal
writing.
X Ruth ate three kinds of fruit: apples, oranges and pears.


Comparing a Well-Coordinated
Paragraph
• I like plums. I don’t like liver. My mother likes liver. She eats
anything. She grew up in a small town. Her family was poor.
They didn’t have money for good cuts of beef. But sometimes
they could afford liver. So my mother learned to like liver. My
mother says I should be happy that I can have liver every
Friday. I think I’ll stick to plums.
• I like plums, but I don’t like liver. My mother likes liver: she
eats anything. She grew up in a small town, and her family
was poor. They didn’t have money for good cuts of beef, but
sometimes they could afford liver, so my mother learned to
like liver. My mother says I should be happy that I can have
liver every Friday;I think I’ll stick to plums.


Other Uses of the Colon
You have learned that you can use a colon to
join two sentences together to make a
compound sentence. However, colons can be
used to connect sentences in other ways:
• to introduce a list or a series (including
bulleted lists)
• to introduce quotations (including block
quotations)


Using the colon correctly
The main rule for correctly punctuating with colons is to make sure that what comes
before the colon is a complete grammatical construction
(usually a complete sentence)

• The best way to ensure that you have used the colon correctly in
your sentence is to look at what comes before the colon and check
that it is grammatically correct (that is, a complete sentence). You
can test this by covering or deleting the information that follows
the colon and see if the information that is left can stand alone as a
complete idea.
• If this information cannot stand alone as a complete idea, you
should not use the colon there.
• For example:
• Five things are crucial to remember when leaving on
your dive boat: fins, BCD, tank, weights and mask.

• If we delete the information after the colon (fins, BCD, tank, weights and
mask), we are left with a clause that is a complete sentence:
• Five things are crucial to remember when leaving on your
dive boat. : fins, BCD, tank, weights and mask.
Source: 'Academic Center' tutoring and Testing at UHV or
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Using the Colon Incorrectly
• Now let’s look at a sentence that uses the colon incorrectly:

• The five things crucial to remember when leaving on your
dive boat are: fins, BCD, tank, weight and mask.
• The five things crucial to remember when leaving on your
dive boat are. :fins, BCD, tank, weight and mask.

• In this example, when we delete the information following the
colon (fins, BCD, tank, weights and mask), we see that ‘The five
crucial things to remember when leaving on your dive boat are’
remains, and this cannot stand alone; we cannot place a period
after ‘are’ , so we should NOT use the colon.


Using Colons to Introduce
Series and Lists
• We can use colons to set up lists or series of items
when we want to emphasize them. That is, we use the
colon to point to the information that comes after it.
• The list is often an appositive that renames or defines
some part of the information that comes before the
colon.
• The information can be presented as either a
horizontal list or as a vertical list
• The main rule for using colons still applies: the
information that comes before the colon must be a
complete sentence.
Monday, April 16, 2012 www.uhv.edu/ac 22

Horizontal Lists
• Let’s look at an example:
• Keiko plans on bringing several items to the homebase party: cokes, napkins,
plates and forks.
• The horizontal list above following the colon is an appositive that
more specifically defines the items that Keiko will bring to the
homebase party. Please note that we can place a period after
party, so the sentence would still make sense.
• Let’s take a look at a sentence punctuated incorrectly:
• Keiko plans on bringing: cokes, napkins, plates and forks.
• The example above shows the incorrect use of the colon. If we
delete the information following the colon, the remainder of the
sentence will not make sense: the remaining information is a
fragment.

• Keiko plans on bringing. : cokes, napkins, plates and forks.

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Vertical Lists
• The same rule applies when you use colons to set up vertical lists,
including numbered or bulleted lists: the information before the
colon must be a complete sentence.

• For example: The AMA has identified four major symptoms of
drug abuse:
• Red eyes,
• Problems with comprehension,
• Withdrawal from social interaction, and
• Depression

• Please note that capitalizing the first word in each item of a
bulleted list is optional – though capitalizing adds more emphasis.
• Also note the comma between items is considered optional in most
business and technical writing.

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Using Colons to Introduce Quotations
• By now you will see the pattern emerging, and if you have missed it, then
let me say it again: : the information before the colon must be a
complete sentence.
• For example: Soo Hee expresses her concern about heart disease:
“Deaths from heart disease in America will increase by five times in the
next twenty years.”
• It is important to remember that the information before the colon should
add to the reader’s understanding of the quotation – it should set up a
context for or explain something about the quotation.
• This is even more important when you are setting up a block quotation.
• For example:
In the novel, Night, Elie is a religious boy who answers Moishe , when he is asked a
question: “Why did I pray? Strange question. Why did I live? Why did I breath?”
(Wiesel 4).
Later in the story, he begins to question God’s decisions. He begins to forsake God:
“Blessed be God’s name? …Why, but why would I bless Him? Every fiber in me
rebelled. Because He caused thousands of children to burn in His mass graves” (Wiesel
67).

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Conclusion
• The rules for sentence combining are not
intended to stifle a writer’s creative genius;
rather, they are a means toward the end of
writing more creatively and with more precision.
By learning to write a variety of sentence
structures writers add depth and sophistication
to their written expression. Academic writers can
also write with more authority and believability.
Remember, it is a waste of a good idea to present
it poorly; we all prefer to read well crafted and
creative language.


Combining Sentences Using Semi-Colons and Colons

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