The Complete Guide to Writing in English

Punctuation Colons

A colon is a very simple punctuation mark to use and there aren't too many rules to cover its usage so this will not be a very long section. As most of you are primarily in the business of writing stories, and mostly fiction, you will not find yourself needing to use a colon very often. However, if you do find yourself writing something that needs one, here are the rules.

As usual, the rules are in regular type and the examples are in italics.

The Colon (:)

The main purpose of a colon is to denote separation. There are several different forms of separation that it is used for so I will cover them one at a time.

A colon is used to separate an independent clause from its logical consequence or the effect of the previous statement.

I flunked every single exam: I ended up repeating that grade.

There was only one way to solve this problem: I had to beg my father for forgiveness.

A colon is used to separate an introduction from a description, especially when itemizing a set of things.

I attended all five of my classes: Algebra, English, History, Biology, and Art.

 

A colon is used to separate two sentences that are placed in apposition (that means that the second one is used to clarify or modify the first one).

Robert couldn't keep his eyes open: he was so tired.

A colon is used to separate a word from its definition.

Table: An article of furniture supported by one or more vertical legs and having a flat horizontal surface.

The rest of these are things that a colon is used for that you should already know by now.

Use a colon to separate chapters and verses when referring to scripture or epic poems.

John 3:16

Use a colon to separate hours and minutes when writing the time using numerals.

10:35 p.m.

 

Use a colon to separate a title and its corresponding subtitle.

Star Trek: The Next Generation

 

That is pretty much everything you need to know about colons. See how easy this punctuation thing is.