Punctuation, like most things in life, follows a simple rule: use it; or lose it! I recently stumbled across a study that got me thinking about the quiet disappearance of a once-essential piece of punctuation: the semicolon. Elegant, divisive & often misunderstood, it seems to be fading from both our writing & our classrooms.
According to a study commissioned by Babbel, semicolon use in English books has dropped dramatically- down nearly 50% in the past two decades. In 2000, you’d find one every 205 words. Now, it’s closer to one in every 390. That’s not a subtle change; that’s a clear shift in how we write.
Babbel’s team followed up with grammar expert Lisa McLendon, who surveyed over half a million UK students. Her results?
- 67% said they never or rarely use semicolons.
- Just 11% described themselves as frequent users.
- Most couldn’t even pick out correct examples in a basic quiz [which arguably is not so basic!].
I found a good write up on this phenomenon in the Guardian which brings a bit of perspective to the matter. Apparently, certain writers have a thing against them. Kurt Vonnegut swore off them entirely, claiming that, “All they do is show you’ve been to college”, while Cormac McCarthy practically abandoned them after his first novel. Even Lynne Truss, author of Eats, Shoots & Leaves, called them “dangerously habit-forming.”
But not everyone turned away. Virginia Woolf used over 1,000 semicolons in Mrs Dalloway, echoing the flow of thought. Mark Twain, Salman Rushdie, Jane Austen- they all made great use of this “useful little chap,” as Abraham Lincoln put it.
So, is the semicolon truly dead? Maybe not. If you check the Google Books Ngram Viewer, you’ll see usage climbed steadily from 1800 to 2006- up by 388%- before falling by 45%. But interestingly, it’s made a modest comeback since 2017, rising by 27% up to 2022.
Teacher Takeaways?
- Make it about meaning Rather than parroting rules, show how semicolons create tone & rhythm- especially useful in writing stories, opinion pieces, or reflective texts.
- Spot it in the wild Bring in excerpts from authors who use semicolons well- Rushdie, Woolf, Tartt- & let students explore how it changes the feel of a sentence.
- Compare, rewrite, reflect Get students to try writing a paragraph with semicolons, then revise it without. Which one feels smoother, stronger, or more formal?
Even if you never teach them directly, it’s fascinating to see how punctuation trends reflect shifts in how we express ideas. The semicolon might not be extinct- but it’s definitely become more of a stylistic choice than a grammatical must.
Never mind your students- how confident do you feel about using semicolons?
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