PUNCTUATION RULES

COLONS and SEMICOLONS

COLONS to Introduce…

Lists, only when the introduction is a main clause

Example:

Friday’s test will cover three areas: the circulatory, the digestive, and the nervous systems.

Note: Do not use a colon to introduce a list that immediately follows a verb or a preposition. That is, be sure the words preceding the colon form a sentence.

COLONS to Introduce…

Material that illustrates, explains, or restates the preceding materialExample:

The epidemic grew ever more serious: now children as

well as adults were being affected.Note: A complete sentence following a

colon is capitalized. Caution: Do not enter until car has come to a complete

stop.

COLONS to Introduce…

A long or formal quotation, often preceded by such words as this, these, the following, or as follows.Example:

Mrs. Hoskins asked us to write an essay on the following African saying: “It is the rainy season that gives wealth.”

Note: Poetry quotations of more than one line and prose quotations of more than four or five lines are generally written below the introductory statement and are indented on the page.

COLONS to Introduce…

Poetry Example:In his long poem The Other Pioneers, Roberto Felix Salazar describes some of the early settlers of the United States:

Now I must write

Of those of mine who rode these plains

Long years before the Saxon and the Irish came.

Other uses of the COLON…

Between the hour and the minute of the precise time

Between the chapter and the verse in biblical references

After the salutation (greeting) of a business letter

SEMICOLON Uses…

To separate main clauses that are not joined by a comma and a coordinating conjunction (and, but, or, nor, so, yet, or for)Example:

Paul Robeson was a talented singer and actor, and he was also a famous football player.

Paul Robeson was a talented singer and actor; he was also a famous football player.

SEMICOLON Uses…

To separate main clauses that are joined by a conjunctive adverb (such as however, therefore, nevertheless, moreover, furthermore, and subsequently) or by an expression such as for example or that is)

Example: Robeson appeared in many plays and musicals; for

example, he starred in Othello and Porgy and Bess.

Robeson appeared in Show Boat in 1928; subsequently, he acted in the films Jericho and Song of Freedom.

SEMICOLONS & COMMAS…

To separate the items in a series when one or more of the items already contain commas. Example:

Some of the powerful African kingdoms that flourished before the sixteenth century were Kush, which dominated the eastern Sudan; Karanga, which was located around Zimbabwe in southern Africa; Ghana, Mali, and Songhai, which successively controlled the Niger River in West Africa; and Benin, which had its center in what is now Nigeria.

SEMICOLONS & COMMAS…

To separate two main clauses joined by a coordinating conjunction when one or both of the clauses already contain several commas.Example:

The rule of Mansa Musa, the Moslem emperor of the African kingdom of Mali from 1312 to 1337, is remembered for military success, trade expansion, and Moslem scholarship; but this period is probably most noteworthy as a golden age of peace and prosperity.