Overview
When was the last time you saw a semicolon? Probably not recently. The semicolon tends to slip through the cracks between the comma and the period, often substituted for either of these more common punctuation marks.
But despite its rarity, a semicolon can be used to convey more meaning and emotion than a simple comma or period. The Oxford English Dictionary defines a semicolon as, “a punctuation mark (;) indicating a pause, typically between two main clauses, that is more pronounced than that indicated by a comma.”
Given the semicolon’s rarity and nuanced use, it’s an open question how using it affects the writer. On the one hand, demonstrating mastery of such an uncommon punctuation mark could make one look smarter. On the other hand, its unnecessary use could make one seem more arrogant. If the answer is both, which effect is greater?
The Experiment
To put these questions to the test, we designed an experiment with 1,200 people from the research platform Prolific. Participants viewed a short paragraph that either contained or did not contain two semicolons (randomly assigned), then answered a few survey questions to measure how competent and arrogant the writer seemed. We also randomized the nature of the text itself, either an email from a manager or an excerpt from a fashion article, to test whether the results vary across contexts.
Participants were shown one of the two texts below. For the no-semicolons conditions, we simply replaced each semicolon with a period.
The following email is from a manager, who is following up after a team meeting.
From: Kevin Morse
Sent: Wednesday, Sep 20, 2023, 4:21 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Meeting
Hi Team,
Thank you for attending today's meeting; it was very productive. I'll circulate the notes shortly.
Next week we can discuss the pizza party; I'm certainly looking forward to that.
Thanks,
Kevin
From: Kevin Morse
Sent: Wednesday, Sep 20, 2023, 4:21 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: Meeting
Hi Team,
Thank you for attending today's meeting; it was very productive. I'll circulate the notes shortly.
Next week we can discuss the pizza party; I'm certainly looking forward to that.
Thanks,
Kevin
Below is an excerpt from an online fashion article written by a junior fashion writer.
"The fashion industry continues to grow; yet, many people ignore the latest trends. It's hard to predict which pieces will be successful. That's because fashion isn't really a science; it's more of an art."
"The fashion industry continues to grow; yet, many people ignore the latest trends. It's hard to predict which pieces will be successful. That's because fashion isn't really a science; it's more of an art."
After viewing the text, each participant was asked two survey questions to measure our outcomes of interest, specifically perceived competence and arrogance. Participants were asked, “How smart do you think this [manager / writer] is?” and “How arrogant do you this [manager / writer] is?” Answer options were on a 1-7 scale (1 = Not at all, 7 = Very much).
Results
The data were analyzed using two-sample t-tests for direct comparisons and OLS regression analyses for interaction effects (i.e., tests for differences across contexts).
Overall, we found no effect of semicolon use on either perceived competence (p = 0.941) or arrogance (p = 0.967).
Nor did we find any significant interaction between semicolon use and context (p = 0.113; p = 0.563). Participants viewed our semicolon users equally regardless of whether the context was a work email from a manager or a fashion article from a junior writer.
Conclusion
Using semicolons doesn’t really seem to affect how competent you seem to others, at least not in the short-term. Nor does it make you look arrogant.
Importantly, we only tested semicolon use in two contexts, a work email and an online article. Other contexts, such as fiction writing, college essays, or more niche forms of literature may evoke different perceptions. But in common communications, it doesn’t seem to significantly affect one’s image.
Of course, the semicolon is just one form of punctuation. It's possible that other forms of punctuation, such as exclamation marks, could produce different results.