Semicolon: The Past, Present, and Future of a Misunderstood Mark

4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars | 377 ratings

Price: 14.17

Last update: 08-27-2024


About this item

A pause-resisting, existential romp through the life and times of the world’s most polarizing punctuation mark.

The semicolon. Stephen King, Hemingway, Vonnegut, and Orwell detest it. Herman Melville, Henry James, and Rebecca Solnit love it. But why? When is it effective? Have we been misusing it? Should we even care?

In Semicolon, Cecelia Watson charts the rise and fall of this infamous punctuation mark, which for years was the trendiest one in the world of letters. But in the 19th century, as grammar books became all the rage, the rules of how we use language became both stricter and more confusing, with the semicolon a prime victim.

Taking us on a breezy journey through a range of examples - from Milton’s manuscripts to Martin Luther King, Jr.’s “Letters from Birmingham Jail” to Raymond Chandler’s The Big Sleep - Watson reveals how traditional grammar rules make us less successful at communicating with each other than we’d think. Even the most die-hard grammar fanatics would be better served by tossing the rule books and learning a better way to engage with language.

Through her rollicking biography of the semicolon, Watson writes a guide to grammar that explains why we don’t need guides at all and refocuses our attention on the deepest, most primary value of language: true communication.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.


Top reviews from the United States

David Shawn Klein
5.0 out of 5 stars Perfectly Entertaining
Reviewed in the United States on July 31, 2020
What a terrific read. Watson writes with clarity and wit; she's an alchemist who turns the history of the semicolon, and debates about its use, into one of the most entertaining books I've read. My only complaint is how she curdles the fun into a breezy, but perhaps unsupportable (I say perhaps because I don't come close to Watson's deep-in-the-weeds mastery of our complicated, refractory language) last chapter where she seems to argue for a democratizing relaxation of language rules, even when educating children, that would appear, if you play her argument out, to make her mastery superfluous--or available only to an elite. If language is, and should be, as changeable as she argues, then has she wasted her life in trying to master it?

But apart from that small objection, I had a great time.
Scott G
4.0 out of 5 stars Charming presentation of a narrow subject
Reviewed in the United States on December 20, 2019
I admit, I'm a grammar nerd. (Pardon any mistakes in this box, though!) I got this book on a whim and was taken with it right away. I was drawn very deep into the presentation at the start where it discussed the history of the mark - and many other types of punctuation, and then kept going on with the history of grammar in the US, and even the legal aspects.

My interest waned a little in the middle where various authors' usage of the semicolon were compared, but the case was well-made, and the book wrapped up on a good note. Highly recommend.

(I took off a star due to my own drop in the middle, but you may dig historical literature comparisons. It wasn't my thing however.)
Miraz Jordan
5.0 out of 5 stars Reminded me how much I love language!
Reviewed in the United States on December 12, 2020
This is a wonderful book, beautifully written, with a great deal of humour. I highlighted a load of gems as I went through. So interesting to read how a semicolon shut down bars in Boston, how grammarians have endlessly argued over it, how some sticklers for arbitrary rules decided they were the right person to rewrite Shakespeare and other greats. This book has inspired me to just get on and enjoy my love of language in both reading and writing.
Amazon Customer
3.0 out of 5 stars Worth a read but not revisit
Reviewed in the United States on November 6, 2021
Entertaining and interesting early chapters on the history of the semicolon and punctuation generally; make you think a course in comparative punctuation would be viable. Watson makes a persuasive case for grammar rules being more an art than science, having more basis in taste than in logical rules. This could have been expanded on with more historical examples, but the author makes a lot of this argument through sermons.

Watson's conflict as a grammar nerd who questions dogma comes out awkwardly in the last chapter, which starts by attacking grammar snobbery and ends up, unsurprisingly in 2021, bowing to faddism. She quotes D.F. Wallace arguing for the importance of mastering Standard Written English, and seems to strenuously miss his point in an attempt to score social justice points. As someone who despises Infinite Jest, I was more persuaded by DFW's fairly benign passage than by Watson's political tokenism.

Finally, it's an insufferable grammar nerd thing to correct someone's grammar incorrectly. In the notes she mentions having to bite her tongue not to correct someone who uses "gin and tonics" instead of "gins and tonic." Unless she's ordering her tonic in a separate glass ("gins with tonic"), she's ordering a mixed drink named "gin and tonic," the plural of which is "gin and tonics."
Brian
5.0 out of 5 stars Got my writing off of a dash diet
Reviewed in the United States on February 16, 2023
I quit using semicolons years ago because I didn't know how to use them; because I didn't want to; because I'd read that dashes are just as useful. But, after reading this book, I'm using a lot more semicolons (correctly, I might add); far fewer dashes. My writing feels better now. Note: This is a book that you can also read just for fun.
R. Marshall
4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining Read for Grammar Nerds
Reviewed in the United States on August 5, 2019
Author Cecelia Watson writes a light, fun book about the history and the effects of the semicolon. Enlightening, often funny, the tale reminds us how language is so slippery and how we humans have always and will always struggle with communication. I enjoyed the book not only because of the subject matter but also due to Watson's sense of humor and style. The end becomes a bit heavy-handed in a political way that doesn't quite fit the tone of the previous pages, but she does leave you with philosophical questions about the role of language.
Dr. S
5.0 out of 5 stars Page-turner for those interested in language evolution!
Reviewed in the United States on September 24, 2019
Such a great book. Full of interesting history and just really engaging. Beyond that, though, it gives perspective to the whole "rules of usage" perspective that we've all been brought up with. In the past, punctuation was essentially just musical notation of the sound that the written sentence would have, were it spoken; it was quite subjective, and only there to help the writing to be expressive of the writer's intent. It was only in the 19th century that rules of grammar became big, and punctuation became all about obedience to these rules. Of course, good writers today and in the past 200 years have rejected those rules and used grammar in the service of their own idea of good writing. But-- like the practice of starting sentences with a conjunction-- we view this as rule-breaking, rather than questioning our own rules-based paradigm of punctuation. What is the point of punctuation? To obey rules or to increase clarity or make beautiful, artful writing?

These questions are front and center in this book, as are instances illustrating the real-life importance of punctuation in communication. The consequences of over-focusing on punctuation according to the rules, rather than the intent of writers, are illustrated by some horrible examples of criminal law gone wrong.

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