Written by David S. Wills · October 23, 2020
Most people think that semi-colons are really difficult to use, but actually they are very easy. In fact, when I was working at a university in China, I could teach my students how to use them in just one simple lesson. That’s what I’m going to do for you today.
In 2026, I made this lesson into a short video:
Semi-Colons: Are they important for IELTS?
First of all, let’s ask an important question. Do you really need to know about semi-colons for IELTS? The answer is basically no. They are not that important. However, the same could be said of most words in the English language. You could easily write an essay without the word “however,” but it’s still useful to know it!
Moreover, punctuation is quite important. Most examiners will tell you that students seldom lose marks for punctuation mistakes. This is because punctuation is actually quite complicated in English and even native speakers struggle. My friends and family are all terrible at using commas, and even books by professional writers contain various errors!
Still, it is important that you know the basics of English punctuation. Writing an essay with no or few punctuation mistakes could really help you to move from band 6.5 to 7 or higher. In fact, that brings me to this piece of wisdom to start the day:
The most important punctuation mark you need to know for IELTS is the full stop (known in American English as a period). If you cannot use this properly, you would struggle even to score a band 6 for IELTS writing.
Beyond that, everything else is a bonus.