Semicolons. I think of them as the yellow on a traffic stoplight.
But I admit it. I love using the semicolon. When I write a rough draft, I indulge my semicolon addiction, but when I self-edit, I have to rewrite most of the sentences where I use them. They are like spice; I use them sparingly for just the right flavor in my writing. I have my one personal writing rule when it comes to semicolons: use them only when the sentences being connected have closely related ideas that fulfill each other.
Andrew M. Friday 