Ah, the semicolon. More than a comma, less than a full stop, and the source of far more fear and confusion than its flamboyant cousin, the em dash. In fact, most people I know tend to quietly avoid it and hope it’ll go away.

However, the semicolon can add clarity and nuance to your writing, and I hope that by the end of this two-part mini-series I’ll have convinced you to give it a try.

Some elements of English SPAG are hard-and-fast rules; others are more to do with nuance. Today’s topic, by contrast, is about unintentional silliness. Yes, we’re talking about you, dangling participles.