THE SEMICOLON
I have grown fond of semicolons in recent years. . . . It is almost always a greater pleasure to
come across a semicolon than a period. The period tells you that that is that; if you didn't get all
the meaning you wanted or expected, anyway you got all the writer intended to parcel out and
now you have to move along. But with a semicolon there you get a pleasant little feeling of
expectancy; there is more to come; read on; it will get clearer.
__
Use a semicolon [


Lewis Thomas
;]
to help sort out a monster list:
There were citizens from Bangor, Maine; Hartford, Connecticut; Boston,
Massachusetts; and Newport, Rhode Island.
OR
We had four professors on our committee: Peter Wursthorn, Professor of
Mathematics; Ronald Pepin, Professor of English; Cynthia Greenblatt, Professor of
Education; and Nada Light, Professor of Nursing.
to separate closely related independent clauses:
My grandmother seldom goes to bed this early; she's afraid she'll miss out on
something.
The semicolon allows the writer to imply a relationship between nicely balanced ideas
without actually stating that relationship. (Instead of saying because my grandmother is afraid
she'll miss out on something, we have implied the because. Thus the reader is involved in the
development of an idea—a clever, subliminal way of engaging the reader's attention.)
It is rare, but certainly possible, that you will want a semicolon to separate two independent
clauses even when those two independent clauses are connected by a coordinating conjunction.
This is especially true when the independent clauses are complex or lengthy and when there are
commas within those independent clauses. You might consider breaking those two independent
clauses into separate sentences when this happens.

Coach Auriemma realized that his next recruiting class contained two superb
guards, a fine post player, and a power forward; but as of the end of the spring
recruiting season, he was still pushing to discover better first-year players for the
interior positions.
THE COLON
Use a colon [
:
] before a list or an explanation that is preceded by a clause that can stand
by itself. Think of the colon as a gate, inviting one to go on:
There is only one thing left to do now: confess while you still have time.
The charter review committee now includes the following people:
the mayor
the chief of police
the fire chief
the chair of the town council
You nearly always have a sense of what is going to follow or be on the other side of the
colon. (Compare the function of a semicolon in this regard.) You will find differing advice on
the use of a colon to introduce a vertical or display list. See Using Numbers and Creating
Lists.
We will often use a colon to separate an independent clause from a quotation (often of a
rather formal nature) that the clause introduces:
The acting director often used her favorite quotation from Shakespeare's Tempest: "We are
such stuff as dreams are made on; and our little life is rounded with a sleep."
With today's sophisticated word-processing programs (which know how much space to put
after punctuation marks), we insert only one space (hit the space-bar only once) after a colon.
It might be useful to say, also, when we don't use a colon. Remember that the clause that
precedes the mark (where you're considering a colon) ought to be able to stand on its own as an
independent clause. Its purpose might be strictly to introduce the clause that follows, so it might
feel rather incomplete by itself, but grammatically it will have both a subject and a predicate. In
other words, we would not use a colon in situations like the following:



Her recipe for gunpowder included saltpeter, dry oatmeal, and ground-up charcoal
briquets. (no colon after "included")
His favorite breakfast cereals were Rice Krispies, Cheerios, and Wheaties. (no
colon after "were")
Her usual advice, I remember, was "Keep your head up as you push the ball up the
court." (no colon after "was")
One of the most frequently asked questions about colons is whether we should begin an
independent clause that comes after a colon with a capital letter. If the independent clause
coming after the colon is a formal quote, begin that quoted language with a capital letter.
Whitehead had this to say about writing style: "Style is the ultimate morality of mind."
If the explanatory statement coming after a colon consists of more than one sentence, begin
the independent clause immediately after the colon with a capital letter:
There were two reasons for a drop in attendance at NBA games this season: First, there was no
superstar to take the place of Michael Jordan. Second, fans were disillusioned about the
misbehavior of several prominent players.
If the introductory phrase preceding the colon is very brief and the clause following the
colon represents the real business of the sentence, begin the clause after the colon with a capital
letter:
Remember: Many of the prominent families of this New England state were slaveholders prior to
1850.
If the function of the introductory clause is simply to introduce, and the function of the
second clause (following the colon) is to express a rule, begin that second clause with a capital:
Let us not forget this point: Appositive phrases have an entirely different function than participial
phrases and must not be regarded as dangling modifiers.
There is some disagreement among writing reference manuals about when you should
capitalize an independent clause following a colon. Most of the manuals advise that when you
have more than one sentence in your explanation or when your sentence(s) is a formal quotation,
a capital is a good idea. The NYPL Writer's Guide urges consistency within a document; the
Chicago Manual of Style says you may begin an independent clause with a lowercase letter
unless it's one of those two things (a quotation or more than one sentence). The APA Publication
Manual is the most extreme: it advises us to always capitalize an independent clause following a
colon. The advice given above is consistent with the Gregg Reference Manual.
We also use a colon after a salutation in a business letter . . .
Dear Senator Dodd:
It has come to our attention that . . . . .
. . . and when we designate the speaker within a play or in court testimony:
BIFF: He had the wrong dreams. All, all, wrong.
HAPPY (almost ready to fight Biff): Don't say that!
BIFF: He never knew who he was.