The Colon (Word Usage)

The Colon

Ah, the colon. A wonderful organ that is vitally important to have checked, especially if you are a man over the age of 40 with a family history of ...

Although I do think the public service announcement above is a very important one, the colon we will be discussing in this article is the one we see printed on the written page, not displayed in the bright lights of the x-ray machine. Of course, this is not to say that there are no parallels between the two. Everyone hears about their colon so much in popular culture that they think they have a good idea of what it is. Similarly, the colon of punctuation is seen and used so frequently that people believe that they know all about it. In both cases, however, people are lulled into a false sense of security, and in grammar as well as life, checking your colon is of the utmost importance.

All unfortunate medical parallels aside, the colon is one of those pieces of punctuation, much like the comma, that people believe they can just sprinkle wherever they like to create whatever effect they are trying to achieve. Despite this popular and persistent belief, however, there are definite times and places where the colon is appropriate, and many more when it is not. Like all forms of punctuation, there are rules regarding its use, and a failure to obey them results in misusages your teachers and professors are sure to notice.

The first correct use of a colon is as a way to introduce a list of items, but note that it must be placed only at the end of a complete sentence, as in the following example: "We had many items for sale that day, which included the following: shirts, socks, slippers, sandals, and scarves." Many people prefer to use a shortcut when creating lists, and employ the colon not at the end of a sentence, but in the middle of one that requires no colon at all, like this one: "We had many items for sale that day, including: shirts, socks, slippers, sandals, and scarves." This may seem right to many people, but the colon is actually superfluous (extra or unnecessary) in this instance. You can remove it completely, and you are left with a single sentence that is a properly formatted list.

A colon can also be used to introduce an example, and the same guidelines apply. It must be preceded by a complete sentence, and if not, it is likely not necessary. Reading through the examples I have provided in this article (as well as the rest of this series), you can see many good examples of how to correctly use a colon. Keep in mind that when the colon is used in this way, it is useful to make the example a full sentence as well. This is not necessary, but it often sounds and looks better on the page. Also, it allows (actually, requires) you to begin with a capital letter after the colon. If you do not follow the colon with a complete sentence, make sure not to use a capital letter to begin the word or phrase in question.

One final point to remember here is a formatting issue which will save you grief and grades on your assignments and papers. In North America, we tuck most of our punctuation into our quotation marks, as you can clearly see in this example:

"I like you," Rose commented to Bill, "but I don't know how to love you."

Semicolons are treated just like commas and periods, tucked nicely inside, but the colon is a rebel. Always make sure to leave them outside the quotation marks, and you will likely put a smile on your teacher or professor's face.