ClearTips: Stunning sentences

Semicolons

Semicolons join independent clauses without using a conjunction, binding two or more closely related ideas that are ideally parallel in construction. They cause a pause longer than a comma, shorter than a period. Some writers use them to link closely related clauses in a paragraph, to distinguish them from looser clauses and ideas.

The benefits to Africa are obvious; the benefits to America are also obvious.

A semicolon at its best, slamming together two parallel ideas and constructions.

Breeding racehorses along these lines is sensible; breeding rulers, to the modern mind, is not.

Brazilians first contemplated a new, inland capital in 1789; the name Brasilia was first suggested in 1822; yet construction did not start until 1956.

The emblems of American mass culture have infiltrated the remotest outposts: the Coca-Cola logo is on street corners from Kazakhstan to Bora-Bora; CNN emanates from television sets in more than 200 countries; there are more 7-Eleven stores in Japan than in the United States.

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