Hey guys, I'm beginning to edit my newest short story called "The Impossible" and am wondering if this would be an appropriate use of the semi colon. I am new at using them so I just wanted to double check from you guys out there to see if i am on the right track. "And to make matters worse, when she got out of the shower; she dried herself off and then looked in the mirror." If any of you guys could give me your feedback on this I'd greatly appreciate it. Thanks and have a great day.
No, in this case a comma would be more appropriate than a semicolon. I'm also not sure of the sentence itself. I guess I'd need more context to know for sure. Perhaps the sentences before and maybe after. But on its own, it could be interpreted that the act of drying herself off is what made matters worse.
Not at all. It's as classic a comma as comma gets, like @Set2Stun said. A semicolon is used to connect two INDEPENDENT clauses not already linked by a conjunction. The independent qualifier is crucial. If the clauses can stand by themselves as separate, full stop sentences on the theoretical level, there's no semicolon needed.
Yeah, it should be a comma. Semicolon is for two independent clauses that are closely related*. In other words, both sides of that semicolon need to have a complete sentence. In this case: Cannot stand on its own and so does not work with the semicolon, but can stand on its own. *...unless you're using the semicolon to links a series of things in a list: "I need a, b, and c; and x, y, and z."
