Semicolons can be used to list items that are more than just a word or two long, and may/may not contain commas. So if you’re listing phrases contain commas, putting a comma between list entries would be confusing as fuck.
For example… I will list a few US capital cities, and their corresponding states: Albany, New York, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Sacramento, California, Houston, Texas…
Compare that to: Albany, New York; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Sacramento, California; Houston, Texas.
See? Much clearer.
I don’t know if this person did it exactly correctly, and I’m not going to go back and read it again to check, but the idea itself is just fine.
Unless a lot has changed about semi-colons in the past 20 years.
Edit: I reluctantly went up to read it again, and it seems like the only thing missing would be a colon after “The combo of” and a comma before “really says it all”
I think the semicolons are correct too (though the colon you mentioned would add a lot of clarity). This grammar rule comes up infrequently enough that it can be jarring to encounter a semicolon before reaching the end of a properly formed independent clause.
Semicolons can be used to list items that are more than just a word or two long, and may/may not contain commas. So if you’re listing phrases contain commas, putting a comma between list entries would be confusing as fuck.
For example… I will list a few US capital cities, and their corresponding states: Albany, New York, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, Sacramento, California, Houston, Texas…
Compare that to: Albany, New York; Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Sacramento, California; Houston, Texas.
See? Much clearer.
I don’t know if this person did it exactly correctly, and I’m not going to go back and read it again to check, but the idea itself is just fine.
Unless a lot has changed about semi-colons in the past 20 years.
Edit: I reluctantly went up to read it again, and it seems like the only thing missing would be a colon after “The combo of” and a comma before “really says it all”
I think the semicolons are correct too (though the colon you mentioned would add a lot of clarity). This grammar rule comes up infrequently enough that it can be jarring to encounter a semicolon before reaching the end of a properly formed independent clause.