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proofer_dare
 Post subject: semicolon question
PostPosted: Thu Feb 21, 2013 4:29 am 
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Joined: Tue Dec 27, 2005 2:21 am
Posts: 50
Location: over there
Hi, my testy copy editor friends. I submit to you this sentence:

If you add or replace keys; add or replace remote transmitters; or replace components for the vehicle's anti-theft system; you must re-register the system.

This was written by someone else, who asked me whether the punctuation used above is correct. I told him no, the semicolons should be commas. I then had to explain why. I'm now looking at a final draft (which I can only mark up, not edit) and praying that he merely forgot to change the punctuation.

PLEASE tell me I'm right, that above usage is not acceptable?

And, if I am, can you tell if the misuse is because of confusion with some other rule? (He said something about how he was "taught in school" that you can use the semicolon this way.)

Thanks,
A Testy Technical Proofreader
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jjmoney62
 Post subject: Re: semicolon question
PostPosted: Thu Feb 21, 2013 10:48 am 
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Joined: Mon Apr 08, 2002 12:01 am
Posts: 3135
Location: Albuquerque, N.M. USA
Commas work fine.
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Editer
 Post subject: Re: semicolon question
PostPosted: Thu Feb 21, 2013 11:20 am 
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Joined: Tue Jan 24, 2006 5:33 pm
Posts: 1225
Location: Texas
You could get by with the first two semicolons, but the third one absolutely should be a comma. You set off these sentence modifiers (the "If you ..." phrase) with commas. Within the modifying phrase, you have a series of longish items, and it's OK to separate them with semicolons if you think it's better for clarity -- that's a judgment call, not a grammar issue. (I'd use commas in the sentence at hand.) But the modifying phrase, at its end, can't be separated from the rest of the sentence with a semicolon; it needs a comma.
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