I have seen questions looking at using semi-colons to make a list, but I am looking to ask whether semi-colons can go within lists to better define the objects in the list. I am looking to write a list within a sentence like this:
These genes are significant in related conditions (gene1; kidney disease, gene2; cardiac arrhythmia, gene3; arterial stiffness, gene4; aortic aneurysm) suggesting new avenues of work.’
I am not great with grammar, so I am not sure if this is actually correct to do; apologies if I am missing an important rule.
Answer
It is acceptable to use semi-colons in a list. However, the semi-colon is a stronger separator than a comma, so your example is effectively making a list which separates the items like this (which doesn’t make sense):
gene1
kidney disease, gene2
cardiac arrhythmia, gene3
arterial stiffness, gene4
aortic aneurysm
It would be better to swap the commas and semi-colons:
‘These genes are significant in related conditions (gene1, kidney
disease; gene2, cardiac arrhythmia; gene3, arterial stiffness; gene4,
aortic aneurysm) suggesting new avenues of work.’
Alternatively you could replace the commas with dashes:
‘These genes are significant in related conditions (gene1 – kidney
disease; gene2 – cardiac arrhythmia; gene3 – arterial stiffness; gene4
– aortic aneurysm) suggesting new avenues of work.’
Attribution
Source : Link , Question Author : DN1 , Answer Author : Mynamite