Where to use the semicolon:

1)     To separate compound sentences where there could have been coordinating conjunction such as ‘and’, ‘but’, ‘for’…

Example:  She had many doubts about this adventure; so much could go wrong.  

2)     To separate compound sentences where there is a conjunctive adverb such as ‘therefore’, ‘whereas’, ‘indeed’…

Example:  She could only see death before them; whereas, Thomas saw the possibility of freedom and a life worth living.

3)     To separate complex sentence containing many commas for better clarity.  (Since this is arbitrary, this is where someone will disagree no matter what you do.  Assess the sentence, if the semi-colon does not help clarify the reading, consider replacing it with a comma or re-writing the sentence for better clarity.)

Example:  Settling the supply pack on his back, Thomas grabbed her hand, and pulled her through the space hole; and Sara prepared herself for the demons of her nightmares to come to life.

(In this case it would perhaps be better to ditch the semicolon and make two sentences.)

4)     To separate lists which already contain commas:

Example: Thomas opened his supply pack and extracted a ‘ready to grow’ replicator seed, waiting only for a drop of Hydrogen to manufacture itself into a full size replicator; a half pound of seeds gathered from his favorite plants, just in case the replicator failed; and a small ball of fur, which was presently shaking in terror.

Use of Quotation marks.

For countries abiding the BRITISH STANDARD of punctuation, quotation marks are logical and thus fairly easy to use.  

1)     Use double quotation for direct quotes when people speak and put all punctuation on the inside of quotation marks if it is part of the quote.  If you have a “quote within a quote” use single quotation marks for the inside quote.

Example:  “You brought Taffy!  I can’t believe you did that--not when you declared Taffy ‘the poster pet for animal sterilization’,” Sara exclaimed..

2)     When using quotation marks outside of a direct quote, place them around the item being quoted and treat the item as a single entity.  (THIS IS NOT THE CASE FOR “AMERICAN PUNCTUATION”.)

Example:  Thomas grimaced as his hand holding the ball of fluff suddenly felt warm and wet.  Noticing the yellow piss dripping from his hand to the soil below, he instantly regretted bringing along “Little Shit”.

However if you are writing for AMERICAN publishers, be aware of a small illogical change in the rules of handling quotes.

1)     Due to some archaic problem with the original presses used by American publishers, the ‘fragile’ punctuations marks of commas and periods where placed on the inside of quotation marks, even when it ran against logic.  Thus the examples above must be written as follows:

THIS IS THE CASE FOR “AMERICAN PUNCTUATION.”

Example:  “You brought Taffy!  I can’t believe you did that--not when you declared Taffy ‘the poster pet for animal sterilization,’ ” Sara exclaimed.

Example:  Thomas grimaced as his hand holding the ball of fluff suddenly felt warm and wet.  Noticing the yellow piss dripping from his hand to the soil below, he instantly regretted bringing along “Little Shit.”

However, if you are using a semicolon or colon, they are not considered fragile and thus follow logical placement. 

The placement of “fragile” punctuation inside quotations makes absolutely NO SENSE in modern times, but it’s rigorously followed by American Editors and Agents and must be adapted if you are writing for the American audience.   So  toss all logic aside and fall into line.   There is no point fighting this illogical rule.  It has become a measure as to how well you know your punctuation.    Resistance is futile.