Which one is correct?

Question

A) Mr. Evans, the family chauffeur, drove me to the airport in a new glossy black sedan my father just brought two days ago—an Audi A8, I think; I hadn’t had much time to scrutinize it completely, but I was sure I was right.

or

B) Mr. Evans, the family chauffeur, drove me to the airport in a new glossy black sedan my father just brought two days ago—an Audi A8, I think. I hadn’t had much time to scrutinize it completely, but I was sure I was right.

or

C) Mr. Evans, the family chauffeur, drove me to the airport in a new glossy black sedan my father just brought two days ago; an Audi A8, I think. I hadn’t had much time to scrutinize it completely, but I was sure I was right.

--I am so confused with the usage of commas, em-dashes and semicolons. Sometimes I understand them, and sometimes I feel like I don't know a thing about them. Can you also please explain to me what those punctuations mean?

Clive · Accepted Answer

Hi,

Hi,

A) Mr. Evans, the family chauffeur, drove me to the airport in a new glossy black sedan my father just bought two days ago—an Audi A8, I think; I hadn’t had much time to scrutinize it completely, but I was sure I was right.

The combination of the informal dash and the more formal semi-colon does not work well.

or

B) Mr. Evans, the family chauffeur, drove me to the airport in a new glossy black sedan my father just brought two days ago—an Audi A8, I think. I hadn’t had much time to scrutinize it completely, but I was sure I was right.

This is OK. To me, the dash is rather informal, but some people would disagree with me.

or

C) Mr. Evans, the family chauffeur, drove me to the airport in a new glossy black sedan my father just brought two days ago; an Audi A8, I think. I hadn’t had much time to scrutinize it completely, but I was sure I was right.

Not good. The semi-colon needs to join two independent sentences. You could say '. . . ; it was an Audi A8, I think'.

I'd probably just put a period after 'ago'.

--I am so confused with the usage of commas, em-dashes and semicolons. Sometimes I understand them, and sometimes I feel like I don't know a thing about them. Can you also please explain to me what those punctuations mean?

Many people avoid em-dashes in formal writing. I never use them in any writing. They often show parenthetical information or quick changes in your thinking. My feeling is that it is better to organize your words and thoughts more carefully.

Semi-colons show an unusually lose connection between two sentences. However, they should be used sparingly. One per essay lseems thoughtfiul and interesting to the reader. A page full of them looks stupid. I probably use one per year.

Here is a thoughtful one. He loved her with all his heart; she died.

Here is a stupid one. He took out the garbage; the can was full.

Clive

Anonymous · Answer

There are many ways to use the comma, dash, semi-colon, and other types of punctuation. And there is a lot of leeway when you use them - you can be creative with them, and they can an active charateristic of your writing. In the sentence you quoted the dash and semi-colon are essentially interchangeable, as are the semi-colon and period.

Here is another way to punctuate the sentence (I can't write a long dash on my computer in this website, for some reason) - and there are many other ways too:

Mr. Evans the family chauffeur drove me to the airport in the new, glossy black sedan my father just bought two days ago, an Audi A8 I think: I hadn't had much time to scrutinize it completely but I was sure I was right.

Which one is correct?

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