The semicolon is supposed to elicit a pause, like a comma. But it is also supposed to present a new idea with a new verb. It can always be replaced with a period. OK, so it's tough to use. Let me try again.
Italics are really fun.
The boring thing about the italic is that it is used to denote the names of novels, films and publications. It gets annoying because sometimes you will have to italicize things, but you'll put them in quotation marks instead. But, like I said, that's the annoying thing. The cool thing about the italic is that it's great for emphasizing things. It adds a little attitude.