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I am writing a personal reference for a family member and trying to list several ways in which they have helped me without the sentence running on. I do not believe a colon would work in this case as it would normally because the sentences are not short fragments and are more complex on their own individually.

Initial sentence:

[Person's name] has always been a loving presence in my life.

Following sentences:

Making sure I got from one place to another safe and sound by [...]. Waiting for me to open up when I was going through a hard time and [...]. Checking in on me and always giving me something to laugh about.

My reasoning:

I start each sentence with a verb to describe what they have done or maybe it is a gerund which I've just recently learned about. Anyway, I am writing the following sentences as if the subject was implied by my initial sentence. Is this okay? Or if incorrect can I fix it without adding the subject each time? I am trying to achieve that list effect just in a longer form.

I also thought about using semicolons in between the 'following' sentences. However, the reference is very short so trying to relate longer complex ideas with too many semicolons would seem awkward, would it not?

Thank you for your help in advance!

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    I’m voting to close this question because I believe it's a better fit on Writing.SE.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Jun 21, 2022 at 19:02
  • It's fine to omit the subject, the way you set it up. And thanks for taking care with the parallel construction.
    – aparente001
    Commented Jun 21, 2022 at 19:38

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This would normally be written using an introductory clause followed by a colon, then a semicolon-separated list of clauses.

[Person's name] has always been a loving presence in my life, by: making sure I got from one place to another safe and sound by [...]; waiting for me to open up when I was going through a hard time; and checking in on me and always giving me something to laugh about.

Using semicolons between the list items allows you to have commas in each clause without ambiguity.

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  • Another option would be bullet points. It's so hard to get people to read your whole email these days. Varying the formatting, e.g. with some bullet points, can help a lot.
    – aparente001
    Commented Jun 21, 2022 at 19:37
  • Yeah, I wasn't sure how appropriate that might be in a non-business letter.
    – Barmar
    Commented Jun 21, 2022 at 19:38
  • Interesting point. I think that in legal writing, bullets tend not to get used, and I would speculate that that's because of page count limitations (petition max 10 pages, memorandum of law max 10 pages, for example). And I think journal articles have a similar avoidance of bullets. But they can really help with readability. Otherwise the reader may jump around and miss some key ideas.
    – aparente001
    Commented Jun 21, 2022 at 19:41

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