Mini Grammar Lesson of the Day: Colons vs. Semicolons

These two little punctuation marks can cause quite a bit of confusion; it's hard to know which one to choose sometimes. That first sentence demonstrates the proper use of a semicolon: to join two complete thoughts that are closely related to one another without using a conjunction. The semicolon is my favorite punctuation mark; I use it often to encourage my writing to flow more smoothly. If you take out the semicolon and replace it with a period, the two sentences would still make sense, but they would sound a little choppy. This is a good test to check the appropriateness of using a semicolon: would the two phrases make complete sense on their own but have a closely related idea? Use a semicolon. For an entertaining cartoon explaining how to use a semicolon, click here.

You have probably noticed a couple of colons in the paragraph above, as well. Colons are used to set off a list or example of the sentence preceding the colon, or the part preceding the colon is an introductory phrase for what follows. Notice that the phrase before the colon must be a complete thought, but the part coming after the colon does not have to be. You could say, "Grandma only uses three ingredients in her sweet tea: water, tea, and sugar." But, you would not want to say, "The only three ingredients in Grandma's sweet tea are: water, tea, and sugar." Here the colon is unnecessary; the sentence makes complete grammatical sense without it. Remember: the phrase before the colon needs to be a complete sentence. Colons are often used to introduce quotes, as well. (Grandma told me her recipe for sweet tea: "Boil the water, steep the tea, add sugar, then place the pitcher in the fridge to cool.") Here is a longer, more precise explanation of colon usage.