Re:Technical Writing for Developers
by rpmisms on Saturday July 16, 2022 @01:19AM
(#32115428)
Dev with a flair for writing over here. Using semicolons is a good practice for separating clauses, especially if you're being verbose
My mother gave me my first car; it was an beautiful 2002 Honda Civic with a falling-off bumper and bald tires.
You could replace the semicolon with a comma thus:
My mother gave me my first car, a beautiful 2002 Honda Civic with a falling-off bumper and bald tires.
That feels a little more natural, but is harder to read accurately.
It's useful in legal and technical writing, but not necessarily great for everyday life. Personally, I don't really use semicolons; you may have different opinions on their usage.
My mother gave me my first car; it was an beautiful 2002 Honda Civic with a falling-off bumper and bald tires.
You could replace the semicolon with a comma thus:
My mother gave me my first car, a beautiful 2002 Honda Civic with a falling-off bumper and bald tires.
That feels a little more natural, but is harder to read accurately.
It's useful in legal and technical writing, but not necessarily great for everyday life. Personally, I don't really use semicolons; you may have different opinions on their usage.
It's basically an arrow in text.
this -> that
as opposed to a comma, which feels more like
this and also that