is this the correct use of a semi colon?

[QUOTE="GabuEx"]

[QUOTE="Communistik"]

Lesser intellects require lesser detail, and that's fine. :)

Communistik

I mean if one's job requires the distinction, then one's gotta do what one's gotta do, but if one honestly believes that the distinction matters rather than recognizing it as the utter theater that it is, then that's an entirely different matter. Language is a wholly human-created phenomenon whose rules come not from a divine edict but rather simple common-use convention, and whose purpose is to enable complex communication between those animals who share a common understanding of the language. To focus on something that is technically incorrect but whose correction would quite literally impart on the text absolutely no greater power of communication whatsoever is not only to waste one's time, but also to demonstrate either complete ignorance of or complete apathy towards the very purpose of language itself.

But hey, what do I know.

You're entitled to your opinion. I feel that the fluidity of the English language (or the attitude of, "Who cares as long as they know what I mean") is what breeds ignorance. I prefer discipline and attention to detail. Try filing a trial or appellate brief with dash errors in any Americanfederal court; you're going to cripple your case before you even recite to the judge, because he's going to think you're an idiot who didn't pay attention in legal research and writing class. You might not consider it important, but that's not because it isn't important. It's because you don't know it's important.

That is exactly the sort of theater I'm talking about. Like I said, if one's job requires the distinction such that one cannot properly fulfill one's duties without making it, then obviously one needs to make it. That does not make it provide any communicatory worth to the language, nor does the fact that people will think one ignorant if one fails to make said distinction. I will defend up and down countless numbers of grammatical minutiae or proper usages of words because I believe that violations of such rules, if they become standard, will detract from the communication power of the language. This is not such a case. The distinction between hyphens, em dashes, and en dashes quite literally does not provide any value to the language of any kind. What one means is entirely determinable from the context, making the length of the line utterly irrelevent and immaterial.

Here is a fun way to confirm about semicolon, Oatmeal link.