I wanted your opinion as to whether the semi-colon in the following paragraph is acceptable; my instinct is to use a colon instead. Is either OK?
Such a clause is unlikely to comply with the Act’s requirements if it is buried in the depths of the policy wording; to be effective, it should be at the forefront of the documents provided.
Either is correct. See The Elements of Style, by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White, Macmillan, 1979, Chapter 1, Rules 5 and 7, pages 5 and 7, respectively.
Based on my reading of Strunk and White, a colon would be preferable to a semicolon in this case because the second of the two independent clauses ("to be effective, it should be at the forefront of the documents provided") amplifies or interprets the first ("Such a clause is unlikely to comply with the Act’s requirements if it is buried in the depths of the policy wording").
