A grammar lesson

Why is there no love for the semicolon? I read this headline today: "Quaid reacts to his ex, Lohan's steamy holiday" - I didn't read the story, but I'm pretty sure Dennis Quaid did not respond to Lindsay Lohan's steamy holiday.

Here's the deal on semicolons (I'm putting on my editor's hat now, so just strap in). Semicolons are used to separate, yet connect, two independent clauses. An independent clause has a subject and a verb, just like a sentence. In fact, it could be a sentence. But rather than have the sentence stand alone, with a period, you can use a semicolon to sort of "attach" it to another independent clause/sentence, to create a connection between the two clauses.

In the case of the headline above, the writer should have said: "Quaid reacts to his ex; Lohan's steamy holiday," or better yet, "Quaid reacts to his ex; Lohan has steamy holiday" (since the second part of the original construction had no verb - it was just a noun with adjectives, and therefore, not an independent clause...or even a clause). By writing it either of those ways, you're saying, "If you click on this link, you'll be taken to a page that covers two stories: Quaid reacts to his ex and Lohan's steamy holiday." The way it's currently written, there's only one subject ("Quaid") and one verb ("reacts") but two nouns ("ex" and "holiday"), separated by a comma, so that means Quaid is reacting to those two nouns.

I know we're all so very lazy about grammar, because after all, we can all speak and use a pencil, so therefore we can all write, so who needs an editor, right? Well, trust me - being literate is not the same thing as being able to write. In fact, I'd like to change my lead sentence. I'm not so much worried about love for semicolons anymore. Why is there no love for writers and editors?

Hire me. I can help you.