Help me do the comma

[JuliaL]

Commas are perhaps, the most misused form, of punctuation.

Semi-colons can be useful; but I avoid them when possible in favor of distinct sentences. The simpler the writing, the more powerful, I believe.

FTFY

There is an ongoing discussion on the proper use of the semi-colon.  This attests to a fact; that NOBODY unambiguously knows its correct usage.

As a member of the population which does not know where the semi-colon is correctly used, I throw them in largely at random to impress the part of the reading public who;

1. Does not know the proper use of the semi-colon and
   
2. Who may be impressed by its use, (falsely) believing that someone else does.
   

My rule of thumb as to where to insert the semi, is that it goes in whenever I have to pause in typing for more than a few moments to think of an ordered list of assertions.

(I welcome the inevitable links to any authoritative style guide which will be offered to prove this method of usage to be evil, wrong and double plus un-good.  I don't care and won't change.)