Write It Well

It’s more important to use a colon correctly than to decide whether you’ll capitalize an ordinary word that follows it. Here’s an example of a correctly used colon in a sentence about the Oscars:

The awards show is working hard to pump up its social-media clout as it tries to leverage a growing phenomenon: More and more viewers are supplementing the experience of merely watching their favorite TV shows by joining in simultaneous running commentaries on Twitter and Facebook.

That sentence is from the Wall Street Journal site; capitalizing all words after a colon is their house style. Style decision aren’t a matter of correct and incorrect language. It’s only important to be consistent by capitalizing each and every word that follows a colon if you capitalize just one in a document.

The optional capital letter after a colon is a reminder of an important fact: a colon should only follow a word group that could stand on its own as a complete sentence.

Many sentences with colons are longer than the maximum length of about 30 words that keeps it easy for a reader to follow a business document. The quoted sentence above is 45 words long.

If you find yourself asking whether you’re using a colon correctly, just try substituting a period for the colon. It’s always correct to write two shorter sentences, and two briefer bursts of information may be easier for your reader to follow.

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Write It Well’s book Essential Grammar includes a chapter on ways you can keep your sentences easy to follow. We’ve made all the book’s exercises available as a free download here to accompany the e-book, which is now available on Amazon.com!

Do you have an important document but not enough time to clarify your thoughts and double-check your punctuation and grammar? Just use Write It Well’s editing services to make sure your readers follow your ideas and respect your voice.

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There are rumors that Amazon.com will start selling merchandise at brick-and-mortar stores. The following sentence about those rumors illustrates a common punctuation mistake:

“There wouldn’t have to be any [store] inventory, you would simply play with the stuff, talk to a professional …, and have it at your house in the next 24 to 48 hours,”  Jason Calacanis wrote in a recent blog post.

The comma in red makes this blogger’s sentence incorrect. Many readers don’t know the grammatical term comma splice but still wince at this particular punctuation mistake.

Comma splices can lower your credibility, including on blogs and in e-mails, but they’re easy to correct. Just ask yourself if you could separate two ideas into two complete sentences rather than with a comma:

• There wouldn’t have to be any store inventory.
• You would simply play with the stuff, talk to a pro, and have it delivered.

Since these ideas are full enough to stand as two complete sentences, they need a stronger punctuation mark than a comma to separate them. The handiest solution to avoid a comma splice is just to type two sentences, like this:

There wouldn’t have to be any store inventory. You would simply play with the stuff, talk to a pro, and have it delivered.

As a rule of thumb, if you think your punctuation may be incorrect, try backing up and typing two shorter sentences. You’re more likely to be correct and easy to understand.

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Write It Well’s book Essential Grammar includes two chapters on punctuation. We’ve made all the book’s exercises available as a free download here to accompany the e-book, which is now available on Amazon.com!

Do you have an important document but not enough time to clarify your thoughts and double-check your punctuation and grammar? Just use Write It Well’s editing services to make sure your readers follow your ideas and respect your voice.

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Lists are an extremely clear and user-friendly way to present information, but they can be tricky to punctuate. Here’s one tip.

Sometimes a paragraph ends with a statement that introduces several following paragraphs. In that situation, the introductory statement should end with a period instead of a colon — just like any other paragraph. Here’s an example of this kind of mistake.

Other [San Francisco] restaurants that have opened in the last couple of years [elicit positive emotions in a] sophisticated and subtle way. Here are six:

AQ. The newest restaurant that features great design is AQ on Mission between 6th and 7th streets….

Chambers. This space has been the home of Miss Pearl’s Jam House and Bambuddha Lounge….

Gitane. Located on tiny Claude Lane, Gitane feels like a speakeasy….

Bar Agricole. The whimsical  glass tubes that surround the skylights,  the brick walls, high beamed ceiling and molded concrete booths all work to give this industrial space a modern, joyful edge.

25 Lusk. Built in 1917 as a meat packer and smokehouse, the bunker-like brick walls make the place feel cozy….

Park Tavern. It feels like an upscale brasserie.…

The “Here are six” sentence calls for a final period instead of a colon. A colon would be correct only if each of these six restaurants were under a bulleted and indented list — an alternate, equally correct way to format the information above.

It’s great to end one paragraph with an explanation of the single topic that the next few paragraphs will cover. Just save colons for list introductions and end all your paragraphs with periods, and you’ll be in the clear!

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Write It Well’s book Essential Grammar includes two chapters on punctuation. We’ve made all the book’s exercises available as a free download here to accompany the e-book, which is now available on Amazon.com!

Do you have an important document but not enough time to clarify your thoughts and double-check your punctuation and grammar? Just use Write It Well’s editing services to make sure your readers follow your ideas and respect your voice.

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Colons are slightly advanced punctuation marks, so it’s important to use them carefully.

Some writers still capitalize a word after a colon, as in this sentence:

Mary Ann thinks the presentation is flawed: She finds it too long and unfocused.

The capital letter in “She” is a bit old fashioned; we recommend lowercasing all words after colons except for proper nouns.

However, the traditional uppercase letter points to an important fact about colons. Like periods, colons should only follow groups of words that could stand alone as correct, complete sentences. (“Mary Ann thinks the presentation is flawed. She finds it too long and unfocused.”)

Even though it’s simpler to lowercase the word “she” after the original colon above, the old-fashioned capital letter can remind you not to use a colon incorrectly in sentences such as this one:

Mary Ann thinks that: the presentation is too long, lacks focus, and should be completely revised.

Adding a colon makes that sentence incorrect. You can add sophistication to your writing when you’re careful never to type a colon after a fragmentary idea.

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Write It Well’s book Essential Grammar includes a chapter on sentence mechanics and two more on punctuation. You’ll learn how to write for maximum impact in all your business documents.

We’ve made all the book’s exercises available as a free download here to accompany the e-book, which is now available on Amazon.com!

Do you have an important document but not enough time to clarify your thoughts and double-check your punctuation and grammar? Just use Write It Well’s editing services to make sure your readers follow your ideas and respect your voice.

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One benefit of learning grammar rules is knowing when you can make your own style decisions and still sound credible and professional.

An example is whether you capitalize the word after a colon, as in this sentence about “The Perfect Gelato.”

Mr. Palazzolo’s strawberry and cantaloupe flavors mimic the textures of the fruits themselves: Strawberry gelato is coarse but gives way under a spoon, while cantaloupe has the smoothness of cut melon.

It’s a little old fashioned to capitalize all first words after a colon, but the style is still widely used. In this case, you’d only need to remember to capitalize all ordinary nouns after a colon throughout your entire document.

This style also makes sense because a colon, like a period, is only correct inside a sentence when it follows a word group that could stand on its own as a complete sentence. If you can replace your colon with a period, you’re in the clear.

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Do you have an important document but not enough time to double-check your spelling, punctuation, and grammar? Just use Write It Well’s editing services to make sure your readers follow your ideas and respect your voice.

Write It Well’s book Essential Grammar includes two lessons on punctuation marks, including the colon. We’ve made all the book’s exercises available as a free download here to accompany the e-book, which is now available on Amazon.com!

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Colons and semicolons are like traffic signals: they tell readers how to steer through two parts of a sentence. The following sentence features a correctly used colon:

That’s the bottom line: The lawns go away when the water rates go up.

— “Author sees growth in the trend of replacing lawns,” sfgate.com, August 21, 2011

The colon signals that the second half of the first sentence follows logically from the first half. (I.e., the bottom line is that lawns are linked to water rates.)

The following quotation in the same article features a correctly used semicolon:

“I planted my native grass meadow in 1989; it’s never been fertilized.”

The semicolon merely links two loosely related thoughts. (It makes sense for the speaker to mention both fertilization and a planting date in a sentence about one meadow. However, the no-fertilizer choice doesn’t depend on the date.)

Using semicolons and colons correctly can help readers navigate through your prose and follow your ideas more easily. Being able to use them deftly adds sophistication to your business writing.

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Write It Well’s book Essential Grammar includes two full chapters on punctuation. We’ve made all the book’s exercises available as a free download here to accompany the e-book, which is now available on Amazon.com!

Do you have an important document but not enough time to untangle your sentences or double-check your punctuation and spelling? Just use Write It Well’s editing services to make sure your readers follow your ideas and respect your voice.

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Be cautious about using journalism as a model for your business writing: some excellent journalists use nonstandard English. Here’s a sentence that uses a colon in a nonstandard way.

To take an example of just one classroom convention that might be inhibiting today’s students: teachers and professors regularly ask students to write papers.

— Virginia Heffernan, “Education Needs a Digital-Age Upgrade,” nytimes.com, August 7, 2011

There’s a simple rule about a colon that follows an introductory thought: only type a colon after an introductory word group that could stand on its own as a complete sentence.

A colon is correct in both the following sentences because the reworded introductory thoughts could both become complete sentences if they were followed by periods instead of colons. The revised words are underlined.

I’ll take an example of just one classroom convention that might be inhibiting today’s students: teachers and professors regularly ask students to write papers.

Here is an example of just one classroom convention that might be inhibiting today’s students: teachers and professors regularly ask students to write papers.

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Write It Well’s book Essential Grammar includes two full chapters on correct punctuation. We’ve made all the book’s exercises available as a free download here to accompany the e-book, which is now available on Amazon.com!

Do you have an important document but not enough time to untangle your sentences or double-check your punctuation? Just use Write It Well’s editing services to make sure your readers follow your ideas and respect your voice.

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Bulleted lists can help readers follow your ideas as easily as they’d step down a staircase. Here are two illustrations, starting with an intricate sentence about an array of covers you can buy to protect an iPad 2:

There is the shockproof CoverBuddy from SwitchEasy.com, available in 10 colors (plus ultraclear) for $25; the Snap Shield cover from Belkin.com, which comes in clear, Apple Pink and Smoke and sells for $30; the BackBone from ifrogz.com, which sells for $35 in matching Smart Cover colors, plus white and clear; or the higher-end iFrogz Summit for $60, which combines a folio style with a snap-in core.

— Mickey Meece, “Options Abound to Protect the iPad,” nytimes.com, July 6, 2011

The same information is much easier to read when it’s unpacked and reformatted as a bulleted list:

Here are four cover options for the iPad 2:

• The shockproof CoverBuddy from SwitchEasy.com is available in 10 colors (plus ultraclear) for $25
• The Snap Shield cover from Belkin.com sells for $30 and comes in clear, Apple pink and smoke
• The BackBone from ifrogz.com sells for $35 in matching Smart Cover colors, plus white and clear
• The higher-end iFrogz Summit sells for $60 and combines a folio style with a snap-in core

Any time a series of items gets longer than about 30 words, back up and ask yourself if the information would be easier to follow in list format. Your readers may thank you for helping them move forward.

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Write It Well’s book Essential Grammar is a thorough review of the fundamental grammar you need to project credibility, clear thought, and professionalism through all your writing. The book includes two user-friendly chapters on punctuation, tips for using colons correctly in list introductions, and tips to maintain parallel structure inside a list.

Do you have an important document but not enough time to polish it? Just use Write It Well’s editing services. We’ll make sure the prose is correct, clear, concise, and engaging so your readers will follow all your ideas easily and respect your voice.

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You convey leadership through your writing when you master nuances of punctuation. For example, this sentence features a strong, strategic colon:

Though he is routinely armed with an iPhone and at least one iPad, the man who oversees the entire animated film output for both Pixar and Walt Disney Studios prefers doing things old school: warm-embrace greetings followed by face-to-face meetings.

— Peter Newcomb, “A Day with John Lasseter, King of Pixar,” wsj.com

The journalist’s colon is correct: it introduces an explanation of the preceding idea. John Lasseter has an old-school style. In what way? He greets people warmly and he meets face to face.

Readers follow punctuation marks instinctively even if they themselves don’t know how to use them. It can feel like struggling through a traffic jam to try to follow poorly punctuated sentences and paragraphs.

But when you punctuate your sentences correctly, readers can be grateful for your clear directions through a maze of complex ideas. That’s one way high-quality writing can convey the quality of leadership.

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Write It Well’s book Essential Grammar includes two user-friendly chapters on punctuation. It’s a thorough review of the fundamental grammar you need to project credibility, clear thought, and professionalism through all your writing.

Do you have an important document but not enough time to polish it? Just use Write It Well’s editing services. We’ll make sure the prose is correct, clear, concise, and engaging so your readers will follow your ideas and respect your voice.

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This description of a two-million-dollar loft in Barcelona provides a good example of when to use a semicolon rather than a colon: “The windows are also original, as are the wooden-beamed ceilings; in the main living area, they are 16 feet high.”

– Virginia C. McGuire, “”House Hunting in … Barcelona,”

New York Times, Aug. 17, 2010

This semicolon is right for this sentence because the ceiling’s height doesn’t depend on its woodwork. But it makes sense to collect these loosely related topics in one sentence because together, they explain why the apartment gets beautiful light.

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Check out our new, one-page PDF “Semicolons: A Write It Well Guide”!

And for a thorough guide to punctuation in business writing, see our updated book Professional Writing Skills: A Write It Well Guide.

Could you use some help making sure your punctuation is correct, and your prose is engaging and easy to understand? Write It Well offers proofreading and editing servicesfor your or your employees’ business documents.

Just send us a document, noting any concerns or goals you have for it – e.g., whether the reader gets enough information from the text to understand your message. We’ll copyedit a sample portion for free and return it within two days.

You’ll get estimates of the cost and time frame for our sending you back a full, edited, engaging document that will make a great impression.

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