What is a Colon?
A colon is a punctuation mark that follows an independent clause and introduces a list of items.
Examples of Colons
Some examples of colons would be the following:
Justine had forgotten the most important step in baking the cake: preheating the oven.
Make sure you are turning in all the parts of your project: your essay, your bibliography, and any rough drafts you wrote.
The soups of the day are as follows: broccoli cheddar, chicken noodle, and tomato bisque.
Georgia has traveled to several countries: Australia, New Zealand, Thailand, and Japan.
The following students will be team captains in our review game: Quentin, Jacqueline, Gustavo, and Daphne.
When You Should Use Colons in Your Writing
Colons are great pieces of punctuation to use when you’re introducing a list of items or emphasizing information. They help direct the reader’s attention to what you are deeming to be important. Take the following examples (and, coincidentally, this use of a colon!):
You must bring three items with you: your test booklet, scrap paper, and a pencil.
By using a colon in this sentence, attention is placed upon the three items. The reader, upon seeing a colon, will naturally pause and focus on the list of items. Let’s take a look at another example:
Please be careful: The floor is wet.
In this sentence, the colon tends to say to the reader, “take note of what follows.” By taking note of the statement after the colon, the reader focuses on the fact that the floor is wet, and in effect with the use of your colon, you have made that reader more aware of what you were trying to convey.
Notice that this second example sentence was slightly different from the first example sentence. The information that follows the colon in the second example was a complete sentence (“The floor is wet.”) as opposed to the information that followed the colon in the first example (“your test booklet, scrap paper, and a pencil”). When the information that follows a colon is a complete sentence, then you should capitalize the first word. In the second example, we capitalize the word “The” because it begins a complete sentence.
Be sure not to confuse colons with semicolons; they are two completely different pieces of puncutation. Once you understand the difference between colon rules and semicolon rules, you’ll be able to use colons more effectively in your writing.
Download a Free Worksheet on Colons!
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