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 ...

The semicolon has been described as a “graceful pause” in writing. But this graceful punctuation mark is being forgotten. Mark Lasswell wrote a recent piece on the semicolon and why it’s fading away ...

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 ...

When you’re learning to type, the first lesson is the home-row position — the keys where your fingers rest: a s d f j k l ;. Learning this, you might naturally assume that the semicolon is pretty ...