In 2013, the late Amy Bleuel founded Project Semicolon ten years after her father’s suicide.
The non-profit organization advocates for mental health awareness. Bleuel chose the semicolon for the organization because, as punctuation, it represents a continuation of thought. In essence, a semicolon is used in print when an author could have ended a thought or sentence, but chose not to.
(Tragically, Bleuel died by suicide in 2017 at the age of 31.)
This movement spoke to me years ago, when I decided to get a semicolon tattoo (my first) behind my left ear. That simple symbol has opened up opportunities for me to discuss mental health with others, as well, and support people who have a similar tattoo.
As a writer, I loved the double meaning behind the choice of this piece of punctuation.
Another piece of punctuation I have come to appreciate—and use routinely in my writing—is the em dash. (Yes, that sentence contains two of them.)
The em dash got its name from the old school typographic symbol, which, by definition, is the same length as the font’s height. In college, I was also told that it represents the width of a capital ‘M’ in the font.
Is one definition correct and the other incorrect? Or are both correct? I don’t know…I’ll leave that to the typographic professors to debate in academic circles.
All I know is that in my current day job, I use the em dash on a reasonably regular basis as I write technical documentation.
Much to my chagrin, both of these punctuation marks have found themselves in the news, as of late.
First, the semicolon.
The British newspaper The Guardian published an article last month studying the semicolon’s usage in writing. “Marked decline in semicolons in English books, study suggests” reveals that 67% of British students have abandoned the semicolon in their writing.
Then, earlier this month, Gen Z and Artificial Intelligence (AI) thrust the em dash into the spotlight. As reported by Salon in “AI can’t have my em dash,” the apparent sign of text generated by ChatGPT containing em dashes was discussed.
But famous writers have used the em dash for hundreds of years. The punctuation appears in the works of Emily Dickinson, James Joyce, and Vladimir Nabokov, to name those mentioned in the article.
So what’s a former journalist to do? I can’t speak for any other writers, but I will continue to use the semicolon and the em dash in my writing. I view the decision to use both in writing as an editorial choice —a human choice.
If you need to speak to someone confidentially about a mental health crisis, Project Semicolon offers many emergency resources available for several countries on their website.
In the United States, speaking to someone is available 24/7/365 through the 988 Lifeline.
PHOTO CREDIT: Pile of blocks used for English language letterpress. (by Michele M. F. via Wikimedia)
