Colons
Colons are punctuation marks used to introduce a list, explanation, or amplification of a previous statement. They can also be used to separate hours and minutes in time notation. In writing, colons help to provide clarity and organization, making it easier for readers to understand the structure and flow of the text.
3 Key excerpts on "Colons"
eBook - ePubWrite to the Point
A Master Class on the Fundamentals of Writing for Any Purpose
- Sam Leith(Author)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- The Experiment(Publisher)
...It’s one of the things, along with word order and morphology (the way words change their forms and endings), that help orient the words in a sentence. Punctuation marks are signposts through a sentence. Some of them inflect a sentence’s tone or meaning: A question mark or an exclamation point change what you might think of as a sentence’s tone of voice. Some of them denote a relationship between one part of a sentence and another: Brackets tell you that what’s in them isn’t part of the main flow of the sentence; a colon signals that what comes after it elaborates or depends on what goes before. Originally, though, punctuation began as a device used by scribes to help people reading aloud know where to pause. The big four marks—the comma, the semicolon, the colon, and the period—were primarily understood to denote the length of a pause, with a period in some accounts of it four times as long as a comma. But those marks were taken up by printers and grammarians and repurposed as aids to semantic understanding. In effect—as with many other features of the language—prescriptive grammarians attempted to fold them into a logically consistent system. So punctuation now plays two parts: It both marks time for the reading voice and signposts grammatical relationships. Many of the arguments about punctuation arise from the overlap between its two functions. A comma can be there simply to mark a pause—but it can also have a role in marking a parenthesis or separating two clauses. As the linguist David Crystal writes in his book Making a Point: The Pernickety Story of English Punctuation: “This is where we see the origins of virtually all the arguments over punctuation that have continued down the centuries and which are still with us today.” Punctuation is also subject to fashion. We live in an age that favors light punctuation. We use fewer commas than our forebears...
eBook - ePubJumpstart! Grammar
Games and activities for ages 6 - 14
- Pie Corbett, Julia Strong(Authors)
- 2015(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...The children knew the trip would be cancelled. Draw out from the discussion that Colons are used to introduce something: in plays, after the names of the characters, to introduce the words they speak; a quotation; a list that has been formally introduced (that is why there is no colon in sentence 3 but there is one in sentence 4); to join two sentences together when the first sentence introduces the other (a full stop could be used instead or a dash). Include Colons in exemplar text and in shared writing, as well as drawing attention to Colons when reading with the class, so that the children build up confidence in using this feature. The semi-colon challenge Only when you are sure that the children have really understood how and why to use full stops, commas and Colons is it wise to see if they can rise to the semi-colon challenge. If they are not secure about the key punctuation marks, the semi-colon will suddenly sprout up everywhere. Also, although the English exam marking system would have us believe that to write at ‘level 6’ you have to have used a semi-colon, this is not actually true. There’s masses of superb high-quality writing out there where semi-Colons have not been used but obviously if it is an examination requirement, you abide by the rules of their game. Try presenting the children with a range of sentences that use semi-Colons correctly and get them to discuss when you would use a semi-colon. Listen carefully: the green team, led by Fred, should stand by the door; the blue team, led by Jo, should stand by the windows; the red team should stand by the radiator and choose their leader, and my yellow team should stand by my desk. Some people prefer tea; some people prefer coffee. The rain poured; the wind howled; lightning lit up the sky. Draw out from the children that semi-Colons are useful for: separating off sections of complex lists where commas might be confusing; linking closely related statements...
eBook - ePubGrammar Survival for Secondary Teachers
A Practical Toolkit
- Geoff Barton, Jo Shackleton(Authors)
- 2018(Publication Date)
- Routledge(Publisher)
...However, the words that precede the colon are almost always a main clause: • The school was facing a major challenge: the recruitment of a new headteacher. • Sandra could think of only one reason for his behaviour: jealousy. A colon can also introduce a list (notice again how it’s preceded by a main clause): • There were strong arguments in favour of the new supermarket: convenience, greater choice and lower prices. You’ll notice that, unless the colon is introducing a quotation, the words that follow it don’t normally start with a capital letter unless they’re proper nouns. Teaching about punctuation to convey shades of subtlety in writing Try teaching Colons through suspense writing alongside dashes and ellipsis dots as a way of hinting at what might be coming next. As I ascended the staircase, a sense of foreboding filled my whole being: the door to the attic – shut and bolted only this morning – was now wide open. These could be written as two sentences, but – like headlights – the colon helps the reader sense that something lies ahead. Demonstrate the convention, and then ask pupils to write their own suspense-filled sentences. Give them a setting: an abandoned railway station, a school building at night, or a derelict cottage. You can teach semi-Colons and Colons when writing about literature – for example, when introducing a quotation. While the most effective literature essays are likely to embed short quotations into the writing itself, pupils may sometimes want to use a longer quotation, and introduce it using a colon. The recurring images of blood in the play symbolise the guilt of Macbeth and his wife: ’Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather The multitudinous seas incarnadine, Making the green one red.’ Take the opportunity to demonstrate punctuation choices when you’re modelling writing...
