The semicolon

Whilst proof-reading the artwork for Somnesia (printing tomorrow, I promise!), I was lucky enough to spot an inconsistency within a semicolon separated list. One item following a semicolon was capitalised, one was not. I was fairly sure I knew which of the offending pair to change, but quickly stepped over to a search engine to find a reliable source to confirm my beliefs.

Behold:

Sussex University

At Sussex, the claim is that the use of the semicolon as a 'supercomma' (a ridiculous term) is frowned upon. Tut tut Dickens, Shakespeare, Hemingway, Austen et al. They also have the ridiculous sentence 'Do not use the semicolon otherwise.' on their page. Hardly an academic institute to be taken seriously.

Bristol University

Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear. I don't think I'll ever take a graduate in English from Bristol University seriously ever again (not that I recall ever having done so, but, y'know...). They start off by claiming the semicolon will take 'no more than a few minutes to master' and then proceed to misuse it themselves, in the example sentence for how to use a semicolon. I have not the words.

Please, read the following from Bristol's guide to the semicolon:

In the meeting today we have Professor Wilson, University of Barnsley; Dr Watson, University of Barrow in Furness; Colonel Custard, Metropolitan Police and Dr Mable Syrup, Genius General, University of Otago, New Zealand.

I hope you're as appalled as I was. Rest assured they've received a strongly worded email.

Also, Bristol University English Department, please stop putting full stops in headers on your web pages. Please.

University of South Florida

Yes, shaming though it is, the one decent academic guide I could find near the top of Google on the semicolon comes from the Americans. I disagree slightly with the banality of what they term 'sentences' when demonstrating how a semicolon may join such a pair, but can't fault their English. You can find their guide here; it's very good. That preceding pair is an example of exactly what I meant by their 'banality'.

Be ashamed Brits, be very ashamed.

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I considered explaining Bristol's unforgivable error, but, frankly, if you're a regular reader of this blog I do expect you to uphold certain standards. Try looking at some of the Americans' examples if you really need to work it out.