Q. In a series that contains titles with internal commas, would you use commas or semicolons to separate each item? For instance, how would you punctuate “the films The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, With Six You Get Eggroll, and Die, Monster, Die!”?
A. We’ve gotten many variations on this question over the years. In general, if a series is clear to you with commas, and you think it will be clear to your readers—and especially if you are resistant to semicolons or think they wouldn’t be a good fit for your document—then keep the commas. Otherwise, use semicolons instead; that’s what they’re for (among other things, as this sentence demonstrates).
Whether you choose commas or semicolons as separators, make sure you don’t italicize them along with the titles (any punctuation within a title remains in italics; see CMOS 6.2). For the lack of a serial comma in the title of the first movie (which follows the usage in that movie’s title sequence), see 8.167.
[This answer relies on the 18th edition of CMOS (2024) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. Is the use of semicolons in the following series warranted (i.e., when the commas appear in the last member of the series and there’s no real threat of misreading)? It just looks weird to me: They were hunter-gatherers who sustained themselves by hunting; fishing; and gathering roots, berries, and various wild plants.
A. You are right! The semicolons are pointless and counterproductive. They should be changed to commas.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]
Q. My question is about the proper use of semicolons. My editor wants me to use the following construct when I use “that
is” or “for example”: “You can tailor
much of the desktop environment; for example, the background window.”
A. CMOS does not support such use of the semicolon; semicolons—when not separating items in a syntactically
complex series—should separate independent clauses:
Deep-dish pizza has anchored me to the Midwest; that is, I’m unwilling to give it up and too heavy to
leave.
When an expression like “that is” is used to introduce a dependent clause, use
a dash (or two) or parentheses:
Having only one thing in common—namely, a knowledge of English—we decided to
call it off.
Snow is great until you have to do something about it (e.g., rescue injured skiers).
Hair loss was not much of a problem outdoors in 1910—in other words, back when you were expected to
wear a hat.
[This answer relies on the 17th edition of CMOS (2017) unless otherwise noted.]