Writers who extremely love semicolons: consider learning how to use colons too, if only to break the monotony.
Some semicolons and colons are more or less interchangeable, but often one is far more suitable than the other. By ignoring colons you miss a useful trick – and sometimes a necessary one.
I won't even mention the practice of using a semicolon to introduce a list, which is horribly popular in unedited writing. It has the unfortunate effect of suggesting the writer is not a careful reader.
