The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation

"The semicolon is one of those tiny things that people are just terrified about. Just think of it as having two roles — it’s either a strong comma, clarifying the organization of a sentence that contains a list when one or more parts of the list already include a comma, or it’s a weak period, separating two closely related statements. I consider myself a word nerd and a grammar guru, but I’m still learning all the time. And I’m wrong sometimes: I’m a human being. But when I was in school, I remember having instruction in proper English grammar and punctuation. It was basically worksheets. It was very dry, very boring. I was generally pretty good at it, but well into my adulthood I still didn’t know the difference between an adjective and an adverb. That is, I didn’t know which label referred to which, but I knew how to use them. If someone had given me a mnemonic — think of the -verb in adverb , and adjective goes with -ject , as in object — I would have been on more solid ground. The way language is taught is just so formulaic and laboratory-driven. It’s not organic; it’s not holistic. And so we acquire these fears of semicolons. We have advertising agencies just refusing to use hyphens, because ‘They confuse people.’ When you see billboards or advertisements, nobody ever uses a hyphen, or if they do, they use it incorrectly. It flummoxes me, as an editor, because I know when and how to use it. I just don’t understand phobias about punctuation marks, though I do appreciate that somebody might know how to use some tool or some procedures for their work which I would be utterly confused about. This book is good for beginners, but I also find it helpful for people who might consider themselves experts. Just, you know, for those moments when I think I remember what I’m supposed to do, but I want to look it up just in case.’ I find it useful for that. It’s very clean, and it’s in a workbook format with many exercises in it, which is a good thing. You read a short, simple lesson about adjectives and adverbs, or about when you use ‘that’ or ‘which’ in a sentence, and then you can practise with the exercises. In British English, you always seem to use ‘which.’ I don’t think ‘that’ exists in British English, does it? Just kidding. But in American English, we make a distinction between restrictive or non-restrictive usage. So, for instance, I might say, ‘The book that is on the table is mine.’ I wouldn’t say, ‘The book which is on the table is mine,’ unless I was being parenthetical in saying, ‘The book, which is on the table, is mine,’ and setting that off with commas. Those two sentences have different intentions. ‘The book that is on the table is mine,’ kind of sounds as if there might be more than one book, and I’m specifying which book it is. The second sentence, ‘The book, which is on the table, is mine,’ doesn’t require any other books to exist. I am merely providing additional information about the book. Yes, they do, with distressing frequency. My understanding of British English is that—and this happens in American English too—people will say, ‘The book which is on the table is mine,’ and they are not using the middle of that sentence as a parenthetical. The argument that a lot of grammar gurus make, myself included, is that it helps make a distinction, especially when you are speaking. When you are reading, the use of the commas to set off that parenthetical helps clarify what you mean, but when you are speaking it helps to use ‘that’ in specific cases and to use ‘which’ in specific cases, to help a listener distinguish what you mean by the sentence. That’s what careful writing is all about: making distinctions as part of your mission to provide clarity to your reader. We don’t have secret meetings in caves or anything, but I remember reading a scathing condemnation of that book. I had read the book previously and had a vague unease about it. Then I realised there were some things in it that I disagreed with and that it is actually not very helpful. I found it to be a little bit careless or inconsistent, or I just disagreed with some of her advice. So I can’t recommend it. I love the title. That’s where my admiration ends."