writing help: Is this sentence grammatically correct? - Help.com

I’d put:
It was a year of waiting; of eager anticipation, and of dread.

Help.co one seems a bit better in my opinion.

That’s not correct. Segments separated by a “;” have to be complete sentences; “that of eager anticipation, and that of dread” doesn’t have a predicate. In general, I advise people not to use a semicolon (the “;”) if they don’t know how to use it. Try: “It was a year of waiting, of eager anticipation, and of dread.”

Oh yh I didn’t know the semi colon, that’s a good point

The idea itself seems to be the same form as the only Charles Dickens sentence I remember offhand:

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

“It was a year of waiting; that of eager anticipation, and that of dread.”

Sorry if I’m misremembering, but the second sentence could be almost identical to the first, substituting the concepts of “eager anticipation” and “dread” for “best” and “worst”.

That’s just an observation.

It is different because “that of” is not a subject/predicate formation, while “it was” is.

Anonymous wrote:
It is different because “that of” is not a subject/predicate formation, while “it was” is.

As you pointed out, the sentence with a semi-colon doesn’t even make sense. As I tried to imagine what it really might mean if it did make sense, I noticed that the intended meaning might be almost the same form as the only famous Charles Dickens quote I remember. Just an observation.

“It was a year of waiting, filled with both eager anticipation and dread.”

I wouldn’t bother using the semicolon in this particular case. I seldom use a semicolon in sentences as it is one of those punctuation marks that can either be used perfectly correct or horribly incorrect. With that said, I do not have a perfect understanding of the semicolon usage but, according to what I’ve learned, I am almost certain that the way in which you used it is incorrect. For future reference, if you suspect that you misused a tricky punctuation mark like the semicolon, chances are you did. It’s better to stick with writing clear, understandable sentences with punctuation marks that you’re familiar with using. Forget about all of that fancy stuff.