1. Dad did everything he could to be a good father. He showed interest in everything my brother and I did. We joined the Boy Scouts; Dad joined the Boy Scouts. We became junior volunteer firemen; Dad became a junior volunteer fireman. - David Rice, Give the Pig a Chance and Other Stories

2. Additional Example Tonight, though, there seems to be a delay; I pick up from the chatter that something special is going on. -Patricia McCormick, Cut

3. The semicolon (links independent clauses that have similar ideas.) Sentence;sentence.

4. Comments from Writers “The semicolon is an ugly bastard, and thus I tend to avoid it. Its utility in patching together two closely related sentences is to be admired, but patches like that should be a make-do solution, to be used when nothing better comes to mind.” -Bill Walsh, Lapsing Into a Comma “Love child of the comma and period.” - Rozzakis

5. Common Errors! Grandma still rides her Harley motorcycle her toy poodle balances in a basket between the handlebars. -student paper

6. How to Fix #1 Grandma still rides her Harley motorcycle, her toy poodle balances in a basket between the handlebars. A comma isn’t strong enough to hold two sentences (independent clauses) together. You would need to add a FANBOY (coordinating conjunction) to make the comma work.

7. What are the FANBOYS?? For And Nor But Or Yet So

8. The Fix #1 Grandma still rides her Harley motorcycle, her toy poodle balances in a basket between the handlebars. Becomes… Grandma still rides her Harley motorcycle, and her toy poodle balances in a basket between the handlebars.

9. How to Fix #2 Grandma still rides her Harley motorcycle, her toy poodle balances in a basket between the handlebars. Since this is made up of two complete sentences, you could simple separate them with a period.

10. The Fix #2 Grandma still rides her Harley motorcycle, her toy poodle balances in a basket between the handlebars. Becomes… Grandma still rides her Harley motorcycle. Her toy poodle balances in a basket between the handlebars.

11. How to Fix #3 Grandma still rides her Harley motorcycle, her toy poodle balances in a basket between the handlebars. Or, you could include a semicolon as long as you don’t OVERUSE them!

12. The Fix #3 Grandma still rides her Harley motorcycle, her toy poodle balances in a basket between the handlebars. Becomes… Grandma still rides her Harley motorcycle; her toy poodle balances in a basket between the handlebars.

13. Try to Fix These! Felicia balled up the napkin in her fist, she didn’t say anything. I didn’t like the salty water, it was fun swimming in the waves. FYI: (These errors are known as comma splices!)