Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Illustrations by It's divisive; it cleaves; it drives some people crazy. The writer Kurt Vonnegut said of the semicolon: It's ...

Semicolon use is down, and its slide is making headlines. In the U.S., these punctuation marks are appearing in published books about half as often as they did 25 years ago. The same trend can be seen ...

Editor’s note: This segment was rebroadcast on Jan. 2, 2026. Click here for that audio. The semicolon has been described as a “graceful pause” in writing. But this graceful punctuation mark is being ...

Love or detest it, the semicolon is the most divisive punctuation mark of the modern era. Should we even care? The History Of The Semicolon (And ... How To Use It) With Meghna Chakrabarti Love or ...

Do you know how to use a semicolon correctly? Even if you think you do, are you sure? That odd cross between a colon and a comma may be the most frequently misused and misunderstood punctuation mark ...

It's divisive; it cleaves; it drives some people crazy. The writer Kurt Vonnegut said of the semicolon: It's showy; it's chiefly used to show you've been to college. More than two-thirds of young ...