Semi-Colon.—The semi-colon (;) separates co-ordinate sentences more dependent on one another than are those parted by the colon.
“Where it is prescribed that an act is to be done; or that the adverse party has a specified time to do an act; if service required is doubly the time allowed; except that,” etc.
In sentences containing two sets of subjects and predicates where either clause is very long or contains a subordinate clause, it is well to use a semi-colon.
Parentheses.—Parentheses ( ) are used to enclose words or phrases in a sentence, inserted by way of explanation or comment, but lying outside of the construction of the sentence:
“You see (as I predicted would be the case) I have had a long journey for nothing.”
Dash.—The dash (—) denotes, in most cases, a sudden digression from the general run of the sentence: “I want to tell you—but first let us go into the house.”
Sometimes the dash takes the place of the parentheses, when the clause, though digressive, bears some relation to the context.
Brackets.—Brackets [ ] are used to isolate interpolated words from the passage in which they are used:
“The examiner said that if they [the candidates] were discovered talking with each other he [the examiner] would have them [the candidates] expelled from the room.”
Hyphen.—A hyphen (-) is used, first to connect the part of a word at the end of a line with the remaining letters or syllables of the word beginning the next line; second, to conjoin two or more words into a compound word; as, “a never-to-be-forgotten day;” “long-winded,” etc.