Simplicity Adds Freshness to Your Writing

No Semicolons!

Simple, straightforward writing can be a breath of fresh air in an era of information overload. Particularly in business writing, shorter, snappier sentences make your marketing message crisper, cleaner, and easier for your reader to grasp. By increasing the clarity of your message, simple sentences and crisp writing make it easier to achieve your marketing goals.

One way to eliminate confusion in your writing is to eliminate semicolons. Several techniques can help you do that. I’ll cover three in Part 1 of this two-part series and three in Part 2.

1. Stick to one idea per sentence.

When you attempt to incorporate too much information into a single sentence, you often muddy the flow of ideas and lose your reader in the murky rhetorical depths. The need for a semicolon can serve as a warning that you might just be entering murky communicative waters. So, try to separate complex ideas into multiple sentences whenever feasible.

Example:

The entire sales team’s numbers were the best they’d been in the last three-and-a-half years. The new sales manager’s incentive-based methods were obviously working.

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A semicolon, instead of a period, could just as easily mark the end of the first clause in the above example. The wording would be the same. Yet, the difference is that with such lengthy content, you can pretty much count on your readers’ holding their breath as they wait to reach the sentence’s resolution. And that’s why a period is better than a semicolon. It allows the reader to stop, take a breath, absorb the first idea, and then move on to the second.

2. Divide a sentence containing two independent clauses into two separate sentences.

This is even more important when one or both clauses contain commas. Even if both clauses are short and closely related, modern usage often breaks with convention by eliminating the semicolon as the main method for indicating that close relationship. In fact, using a period instead of a semicolon between short, related clauses can actually add impact to your writing. That’s why this technique is common in modern marketing copy as well as other types of modern writing.

Examples:

Last year’s profits were down 5% due to the recession; this year’s are up 10%, thanks to economic recovery.

Last year’s profits were down 5% due to the recession. This year’s are up 10%, thanks to economic recovery.

In the second clause/sentence, the subject, profits, is understood.

3. Use a coordinating conjunction between clauses.

Coordinating conjunctions include and, but, so, or, nor, for, and yet. They help clarify the relationship between two independent clauses. Placing a comma at the end of the first clause and a coordinating conjunction at the beginning of the second clause lets you eliminate the semicolon.

Examples:

The publication staff meets once a month; the marketing staff meets every week.

The publication staff meets once a month, but the marketing staff meets every week.

Avoid Unnecessary Edits: Simplify Up Front

These three techniques can help you simplify your writing and make it easier for your reader to follow. In fact, keeping Techniques 1 and 3 in mind while creating your content, should reduce your need to use Technique 2 during revision. After all, simplifying up front is always better than editing later to clarify ideas that you’ve made too complex the first time around. That’s one great way to save yourself a lot of extra work.

In Part 2, we’ll look at three other helpful techniques for eliminating semicolons and making your writing crystal clear.

Which of the above three techniques do you use most to simplify your writing?


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