Punctuating “However”

Hello, you have A Way with Words.

Hi, this is Sean Marson here.

Hi, Sean, where are you calling from?

I’m calling from Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Well, welcome to the program. What can we do for you?

Hi, I’m a private investigator, and in my reports I have to pretty much describe what I documented when I was out in the field.

And I usually use semicolons following the word however.

And I was wondering what the proper use of semicolons typically is.

Following the word however, did you say?

Yes, it’ll be the individual did some jumping jacks, comma, however, semicolon, was later observed limping into the doctor’s office.

Oh, it’s insurance fraud.

So easy to catch them when they do jumping jacks down the street in plain view of your car.

Or is it an unmarked white fan that you use?

No, it kind of varies.

I don’t want to give away my surveillance.

Oh, okay.

Just in case there’s any listeners out there.

Is Sean your real name?

Yeah, it is.

Well, Sean, you’ve got two pieces of punctuation there, and they need to do a little dance.

And the semicolon needs to dance to the front of the line ahead of however,

And the comma needs to do a dance and go right to the end of the line after however.

Okay, so did you say the semicolon is prior to however?

That’s right. The semicolon should proceed however.

Okay.

And Martha, this is a matter of connecting two related ideas with the semicolon,

Who’s kind of got some mysterious functions, doesn’t it?

Well, yeah.

Yeah, that’s why it’s under surveillance, right?

I’m going to make another suggestion here,

And this is because I think as a writer,

I don’t know if you want to call it codependent or what,

But I always want to make things easier on the reader,

And that’s my secret strategy because it’s selfish

Because it makes the reader understand me better with less effort.

I would suggest taking out the however altogether and saying something like, although the individual was observed performing push-ups in his front yard, he later limped into the doctor’s office or something.

I don’t know.

To me, however is sometimes kind of a wishy-washy word.

What do you think, Grant?

There’s always room for wishy-washiness in writing because so many things aren’t clear.

Although is kind of the same story.

But you’re setting up an opposition here.

That’s what although and however do.

So what you’re doing is you’re pushing that opposition to the front of the whole idea.

By leading off with it, then you avoid any kind of trouble with the semicolon at all.

Okay.

Although the investigator saw him doing push-ups in his yard with one hand, comma,

He later went to the doctor and claimed that his wrists were still hurting him or whatever.

Right.

So the comma is there.

You avoid the semicolon, although he’s doing the work of however at the front of the whole sentence.

Okay.

So then I guess a follow-up to that is when and where do you use a semicolon?

And what is its purpose?

I was under the understanding of kind of combining almost two sentences into one.

And that’s, I mean, two thoughts.

The main purpose is to keep grammarians employed.

It’s a troublemaker, really.

Right, right.

You don’t want a semicolon shortage.

No, you’re right.

You’re right.

They unite closely connected sentences, and often they do signal some kind of contrast, like you’re saying.

I’ve heard semicolons described as kind of a weightier pause than a comma.

I’m not a Pisces semicolon.

I’m a Scorpio.

You know, when the comma isn’t quite strong enough,

You just want a slightly stronger stop than a comma.

So, yeah, that makes sense.

Thank you very much.

That will definitely help clean up my reports a little bit.

Super duper.

Thanks for calling, Sean.

Thank you, and have a great day.

Well, call us and talk to us about how you use writing in your work,

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