The (Cute) Colons Page:                    :

Hint: Punctuation colons have nothing to do with digestion. Usually.

If you do internet a lot, especially chat rooms and email, you may already use the colon in a way unheard of before computers: you use them to represent eyes when you want to express happy/unhappy feelings.              :) :(

You must look at them sideways for the effect to work.

If you want it to look like a wink, use a semicolon. ;)

---

But our ancestors who invented the colon had something very different in mind: a warning.

The colon announces that the reader is about to get an explanation, examples, clarification.

Like this:

If you want to date her/him, you must: be up to date with personal hygiene, be moderately wealthy, know all of the lyrics to every rap ever written.

Create some. Invent a couple of sentences in which you need to draw attention to what follows the colon. You can do it. C'mon!

                                                                                                      

---

Please do one more thing: look over some of your writing, and find a place or two to add a colon followed by some explanatory words.

In terms of helping your writing, using colons this way may help make your writing more specific.

Teachers like that.

---

To return to Step Two, click here.