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----- Original Message -----
From: "Jan Henning" <henning -at- r-l -dot- de>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Sent: August 17, 2003 03:22 AM
Subject: Re: Avoid the Semicolon in Tech Writing?
>
> > Aside from a series in which one or more elements in the series have
> > commas,
>
> This is correct. However, this discussion got me thinking: If you want
> to avoid the semicolon, you'd have to avoid creating series where
> elements have commas. How would you do that? Simple: Make the series a
> bulleted list.
>
> Since a series with commas and semicolons is always a little hard to
> read correctly, this would likely improve the overall clarity of the
> text.
>
> So, maybe trying to avoid semicolons isn't such a bad idead.
>
> Regards
> Jan Henning
>
What I was intending to convey was that in a series, it's helpful under
specific circumstances.
I meant "aside from" to mean, "Let's not consider this usage, because it's
well-established and generally agreed upon."
I think it works well. When properly used, what cumbersomeness that might
exist is overshadowed by the clarity that results from the presentation of the
list itself.
In other words, some series are really useful in that form, even if they have
semicolons.
