Hello all!

I’m back again with more tips for your punctuation pleasure! Today is all about the colon, one of the most misunderstood punctuation marks out there. Somewhere along the way, we all (and I include myself in this group!) seem to get the idea that the colon is designed to introduce any list we include in a sentence. We think, for example, that it’s perfect for use in a situation like this: I went to the store and bought: apples, bananas, and oranges. Well, brace yourself, because that is actually a completely incorrect use of the colon!

So what’s the secret to a correct use of the colon? It’s actually quite simple: It must follow an independent clause (which, as you may recall from last week, is a phrase that could be a complete sentence in and of itself). So, while it’s incorrect to say I went to the store and bought: apples, bananas, and oranges (because “I went to the store and bought” isn’t really a complete sentence), it’s absolutely correct to say I went to the store and bought several kinds of fruit: apples, bananas, and oranges (because “I went to the store and bought several kinds of fruit” can stand on its own). Thus, the idea of a colon as something meant to introduce a list is not an entirely incorrect one; it’s simply that that colon and list must be preceded by an independent clause.

Now, there’s one more nuance to cover when it comes to colons: the capitalization of the first word following the colon. There’s some debate about this, but I subscribe to the camp that uses a lowercase letter if what follows the colon is not an independent clause and a capital letter if what follows the colon is an independent clause. Thus (as you can see above), Now, there’s one more nuance to cover when it comes to colons: the capitalization of the first word following the colon, but It’s actually quite simple: It must follow an independent clause. An easy way to remember that rule is that the first word of any sentence gets capitalized, so if what follows the colon could be a sentence, its first word needs to be capitalized.

I hope you’re now ready to use colons in a whole new–and more correct–way in your writing! As with semicolons, they’re an incredibly useful tool with a very specific purpose, and using them in your writing will add the clarity and elegance readers so appreciate. Next time, I’ll be talking about the wonders of quotation marks.

Until then!