I remember watching a free preview video of an online course that is a competitor of mine, so to speak. The free video was a lesson on semicolons.
No problem there: the semicolon is a piece of punctuation that will show up in multiple ACT English questions, and the student who knows how to use it will simply get more questions correct than the one that does not.
However, this video taught (correctly) that there are 2 uses for the semicolon in the English language, but taught the two rules as if they were equals.
You might think there's no problem with that, but there is a big problem as far as ACT prep goes: one of the two rules is not only extremely rare (perhaps the rarest of ACT English questions, as in it may appear 1 time in the next 10 ACT tests), but difficult, in my experience, for high school students to recognize and apply.
So, why force our students, near the beginning of their ACT English prep, to learn this rare rule and stress over the difficulty in mastering it?
That doesn't make sense, which is why I released a YouTube video breaking it down here.
The number one way to use a semicolon, the way that must be recognized multiple times on each and every ACT English test, is to combine independent clauses into more complex sentences. In other words, it can replace a period, like this:
I heard about the award-winning cows; they were outstanding in their field.
Some students make the mistake of allowing a FANBOYS conjunction to sit after a semicolon in this scenario, but that is a mistake: use a FANBOYS (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so) after a comma here, not a semicolon.
Correct: I went to the store; I forgot to buy milk.
Incorrect: I went to the store; but I forgot to buy milk.
Correct: I went to the store, but I forgot to buy milk.
Incorrect: I went to the store, I forgot to buy milk.
The second use for the semicolon (the super rare one almost not worth mentioning) is that it can be used to set off items in a list. We're used to doing this with commas. For example: I bought milk, cheese, and wine at the store.
However, sometimes in more complex sentences (when there are already lots of commas doing other things), semicolons can be used instead.
For example: Three items I need at the store are milk, which my wife needs to make muffins; cheese, which my kids need for their school sandwiches; and wine, which mom and dad need to help their kids with their homework!
There you have it! If you'd like to see all that is necessary for the ACT English test in order, but in a compressed version, check out these free ACT System cheat sheets!
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