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“7. Use a colon after an independent clause to introduce a list of particulars, an appositive, an amplification, or an illustrative principle.
A colon tells the reader that what follows is closely related to the preceding clause. The colon has more effect than the comma, less power to separate than the semicolon, and more formality than the dash. It usually follows an independent clause and should not separate a verb from its complement or a preposition from its object. In the four sentences that follow, the first sentence in each pair is wrong; it should be rewritten as in the second sentence.
Your dedicated whittler requires: a knife, a piece of wood, and a back porch.
Your dedicated whittler requires three props: a knife, a piece of wood, and a back porch.
Understanding is that penetrating quality of knowledge that grows from: theory practice, conviction, assertion, error, and humiliation.
Understanding is that penetrating quality of knowledge that grows from theory, practice, conviction, assertion, error, and humiliation.
Join two independent clauses with a colon if the second interprets or amplifies the first.
But even so, there was directness and dispatch about animal burial: there was no stopover in the undertakers foul parlor, no wreath or spray.
A colon may introduce a quotation that supports or contributes to the preceding clause.
The squalor of the streets reminded her of a line from Oscar Wilde: ‘We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.’
The colon also has certain functions to form: to follow the salutation of a formal letter, to separate hour from minute in a notation of time, and to separate the title of a work from its subtitle or a Bible chapter from a verse.
Dear Mr. Montague:
departs at 10:48 P.M
Practical Calligraphy: A Guide to Italic Script
Nehemiah 11:7“
Excerpted from: Strunk, William Jr., and E.B. White. The Elements of Style, Fourth Edition. New York: Longman, 2000.
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