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My sentence (roughly—it's in a scientific document and i have simplified somewhat):

It is more relevant to calculate A relative to B: although C filters the observation, B describes the true information content.

Do you think I should replace the colon with a semicolon? I used a colon because the latter part of the sentence is an explanation of the first clause. Someone has suggested a semicolon instead.

Jon Hanna
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FionaSmith
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    Howo about a since instead of either? – mplungjan Jun 10 '14 at 09:17
  • thanks for the comment, but I'm afraid that wouldn't work here: "since although"?? – FionaSmith Jun 10 '14 at 09:29
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    Although C filters the observation, it is more relevant to calculate A relative to B since B describes the true information content – mplungjan Jun 10 '14 at 11:32
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    @mplungjan yes that would be OK but it subtly changes the emphasis which does not fit so well in context. I see no reason to avoid punctuation: it is a perfectly legitimate part of a sentence! – FionaSmith Jun 10 '14 at 13:58
  • Possibly legitimate but harder to read and absorb. It is more relevant to calculate A relative to B since B describes the true information content notwithstanding that C filters the observation – mplungjan Jun 10 '14 at 16:03
  • Why the downvoting? Seems a bit mean... it was a genuine question that some folks were kind enough to answer. – FionaSmith Jun 19 '14 at 18:08
  • Don't take it too seriously. Some people need to learn how to comment their downvoting. – mplungjan Jun 19 '14 at 18:30

3 Answers3

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Use a colon or a dash (not a hyphen). As you say yourself, with these you inform the reader that what follows is an explanation of what precedes. With a semicolon, the reader loses that information. See also this related question. The same reasoning applies here.

Community
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RegDwigнt
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  • As an aside, very few people grok semicolons, so a rather useful rule of thumb is: if you're not sure if you should use a semicolon, then don't. – RegDwigнt Jun 10 '14 at 09:38
  • Yes I could use a dash. In fact I do use them quite a lot. But at least now one person agrees with me a colon is OK, I'll leave it as is! – FionaSmith Jun 10 '14 at 09:46
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    Colon is completely wrong :) If you'd written (and I'm not claiming this is good English) "It is more relevant to calculate A relative to B, and here's why:" then the colon is fine. But you haven't given any signal that an explanation for why is imminent. I like @mplungjan's suggestion of since instead. I would actually reverse the order of two halves of the sentence then use a conjunction like "therefore". –  Jun 10 '14 at 14:20
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    @TheMathemagician the colon is the signal that an explanation for why is imminent. You do not need to precede every colon with a "here's why": it itself is a shorthand for just that. – RegDwigнt Jun 10 '14 at 15:19
  • @RegDwigнt Sure when it's clear that a list or explanation is coming, but here a colon seems unnatural and it's not at all obvious what's coming even after we've seen the colon. In any case I think reversing the sentence is better: [<--colon and you already know that I'm going to give an example of the reversed sentence] "Although C filters the observation, B describes the true information content, therefore it is more relevant to calculate A relative to B." –  Jun 10 '14 at 15:45
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I'd actually say they are two separate sentences and it ends with a period after '... relative to B.'; starting a new sentence with 'Although...'.

R-D
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  • Using a colon does not mean that they are not two separate sentences; rather the opposite. Using a period would completely get rid of the hint to the reader that the second sentence is an explanation to the first. – Janus Bahs Jacquet Jun 10 '14 at 11:14
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How about avoiding the punctuation; although valid, it blocks fluent reading — something I dislike (especially if the sentence can be restructured)

This works better for me but it changes the emphasis as you correctly observed

Although C filters the observation, it is more relevant to calculate A relative to B since B describes the true information content

But this does not in my opinion change the emphasis but does use a longer, possibly stuffy word - perhaps although could take its place?

It is more relevant to calculate A relative to B since B describes the true information content notwithstanding that C filters the observation.

mplungjan
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    Well, I would be happy enough with "It is more relevant to calculate A relative to B since B describes the true information content even though it is C that filters the observation". Thanks for taking the time to answer – FionaSmith Jun 10 '14 at 18:48