: Are modern authors still using colons and semicolons in dialogue? Not sure if it's just my idea but I rarely see colons and semicolons in dialogue (especially in modern novels). Is it because

Vote Up Vote Down

Some authors do their best to worm some semicolons and colons into a character's dialogue; however, since you can't see how someone talks in reality, it is more common to use the predictable punctuation like periods, commas, question marks and exclamation marks.

See what I did there?

(0)

Vote Up Vote Down

I disagree that a colon does not simulate normal speech. A classic example would be when I enumerate something to my dialog partner:

"Hey Joe, we offer the following colours:


Gray
Blue
Yellow."

There, maybe even with semicola in a single line:

"Hey Joe, we offer the following colours: Light Gray, Dark Gray and Eternal Gray; California Orange, Funky Orange and Citrus Yellow; Abnormal Blue and Abyss Almost Black Blue."

Trying to construct these without colons and semicola makes them look funky and emotionless:

"Hey Joe, we offer the following colours. Light Gray and Dark Gray. California Orange and Citrus Yellow."

I am not sure if the latter is even correct English, but in a language where it's incorrect, one would have to reconstruct the whole sentence:

"Hey Joe! Light Gray and Dark Gray are the colours we offer."

Personally, I don't talk like that.

(0)

Vote Up Vote Down

The sad truth is that semicolons are slowly dying. NGrams

However as one of the few people who still attempt to use semicolons in writing (and a programmer) I sincerely hope they don't die out. Ultimately a lot of it boils down to a lack of proper teaching; teachers these days do not often teach students the correct use of semicolons.

In an attempt to stop them dying, I'd like to say:

"Using a semicolon isn't hard; I once saw a party gorilla do it."

(0)

Vote Up Vote Down

The real answer here is:

Whatever makes your message the most clear to your readers.

Learn to use punctuation as properly as possible, because this is what people learn at schools. Since they learn it there they tend to understand it as common usage and it's easier for them to gather meaning. And since most people learn to read at school, a common set of expectations arise.

Imagine if everyone defined their own meaning for the period. Some might use it to indicate a contraction such as don.t (don't) and others might use it to indicate a capital word such as .sally (Sally.

It could get to be a ridiculous mess.
So, the answer is:

Learn the rules of writing that the largest number of readers will
recognize.

Isn't it interesting that no one worries this much about speaking?
So, if you make your writing sound very similar to your speaking, then you'll probably match the greatest percentage of readers anyway. I generally speak without any use of a colon or semi-colon.

Besides those symbols originally simply indicated length of pause for a speaker who was using notes.

Can you read this:

"I'm extremely annoyed," said Ted.

"What do you mean? Is it because the mail is late today," Julie
asked.

"What? No." Ted waved a piece of paper frantically in the air. "The
city just hit us for 6 months of taxes. All at once."

"Oh no."

"Yep, it's that new semicolon law; the one that charges .00 for
every time a person speaks a sentence with a semicolon in it."

(0)

Vote Up Vote Down

"The point of a Horcrux is, as Professor Slughorn explained, to keep part of the self hidden and safe, not to fling it into somebody else's path and run the risk that they might destroy it — as indeed happened: That particular fragment of soul is no more; you saw to that."

"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince", J. K. Rowling

"Lord Voldemort liked to collect trophies, and he preferred objects with a powerful magical history. His pride, his belief in his own superiority, his determination to carve for himself a startling place in magical history; these things suggest to me that Voldemort would have chosen his Horcruxes with some care, favoring objects worthy of the honor."

"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince", J. K. Rowling

(0)