There are two absolutely central and simple rules for the use of the semicolon (“;”), and learning these will improve both your Sentence Correction skills and your writing in general — remember, in addition to getting lots of questions right on the GMAT, you will need to write actual sentences on your AWA, in your personal statement, and in your MBA classes!  The rules for the use of the semicolon are:

1. When writing a list of things, and those listed things have commas themselves, separate the items in the list with semicolons.
2. When joining two related independent clauses (“complete sentences”) into a single sentence, place a semicolon between them.

That’s all! The first is the simpler of the two; we’ll cover the second in another post.  According to the first rule, the semicolon acts as a kind of “meta-comma,” a bigger divider separating the other dividers properly so that the reader can make sense of a list:

“Erika loves to travel and has visited many places: Iona, Scotland, Seattle, Washington, Beijing, China, and Calgary, Alberta.”

A less careful reader might think she’s visited eight different places rather than four; a careful reader will get it right, but may well become frustrated with the author. It is not in your best interest to frustrate the admissions officer reading your personal statement! A semicolon makes it clearer:

“Erika loves to travel, and has visited many places: Iona, Scotland; Seattle, Washington; Beijing, China; and Calgary, Alberta.”

You might also see commas setting off modifying phrases within a list:

“Henrik couldn’t stand to eat certain foods: sushi, which made him jealous of people who lived near the sea; anything that came from sheep, such as lamb and mutton; and peaches, because the fuzz gave him the chills.”

It’s not important to remember any of the different reasons you might have commas within your list, though, as long as you remember to separate your list items (when you do have commas within them) with the “meta-comma,” the semicolon.  In the next article, we’ll cover the other, more-tested use of the semicolon (joining two independent clauses).