Finally, the colon…
A writer is a person for whom writing is more difficult than it is for other people.
–Thomas Mann
Two weeks ago, when I posted about the dash, I had intended to include the colon as well since the function of the two marks of punctuation can be related. However, the lovely dash deserved its own post, so I delegated the colon to today.
The connection between the dash and the colon is thus: while the dash tends to draw attention to what follows it, the colon tends to emphasize that which precedes it.
More specifically, according to Lynne Truss, colons “introduce the part of a sentence that exemplifies, restates, elaborates, undermines, explains or balances the preceding part.”
In short, colons
- announce what’s to follow — My dog has two different colors: black and white.
- separates two oppositional statements — “Man proposes: God disposes” (G.B. Shaw)
- sets up a surprise — I have one rule in my life: to live like I am dying.
In addition, more commonly, colons
- set up long quotations — This theme is obvious is the following quote: “Say Yes…”
- separate titles and subtitles — Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation
- separate characters from dialogue — Bob: Let’s go! John: I’m not ready yet
Any questions?
If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Most Commented Posts
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
No comments yet.
Leave a comment