Semicolons show grammatical equivalence. Most often they join two independent clauses without a coordinating conjunction.
Queen Elizabeth was strong willed and shrewd her half-sister Mary boasted neither trait.
Queen Elizabeth was strong willed and shrewd; her half-sister Mary boasted neither trait.
Queen Elizabeth was strong willed and shrewd, but her half-sister Mary boasted neither trait.
The narrator in Chaucer’s Book of the Duchess is either a genius or a fool; close attention to the text bears out either reading.
Whether this ability to read the text in multiple ways is a sign of expertise or its lack; is a question that twentieth-century critics long debated.
Sentences in Green are incorrect.
Worksheet using semicolons