To start, semi colons have never made sense to me. I have tried to never use them and I have tried to overuse them, but in the end I have never understood the rule that goes along with the placing of semi colons. The reason I can not understand it is because it is not an absolute rule and it can vary from situation to situation.
Through some research, I have discovered the correct usage of a semicolon. The two main usages are separating elements (when a comma is insufficient or unclear) and linking elements (without a conjunction or sentence separation). For example,Dan has decided to be a vegetarian; therefore, he chose the vegetable dish on the flight to India. A semicolon was used here because a period would leave it uncompleted, and a comma could result in a comma splice; therefore you use a semi colon to connect two independent clauses. The second usage is when linking elements that may be a contrast,addition,cause,affect between two fairly short clauses. For example,the Smiths went up north for their vacation; the Johnsons went down south for theirs. This exemplifies a contrast between two short clauses that would be incomplete with a period and informal with a comma.
To learn more about this rule go to http://www.whitesmoke.com/punctuation-semicolon.html#sep
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Sweetness looks like you will be using semi colons now.
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