Colons, Semicolons, and Dashes

Common rules for punctuation

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A. Colons are used after a complete statement to set up a list or a quote.

Examples:
I like the following poets best: Housman, Yeats, and Eliot. President Kennedy encouraged the nation with his stirring words: "Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask what you can do for your country."

The colon must come after a group of words that is a complete sentence. You would NOT use a colon in the following sentence:

INCORRECT: The poets I like best are: Housman, Yeats, and Eliot.

The colon is incorrect in the above sentence because "The poets I like best are" is not a complete sentence. There should be NO colon after the verb "are."

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B. Semicolons are used to join two sentences together. (See Note in Comma Rule C)

Examples:
Wade held the ball for a second; then he passed to Wes.
The lane was poorly lighted; therefore, I was unable to see the box in the middle of the path.

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C. Dashes can be used in place of commas to set off nonessential information that the writer wishes to draw attention to or emphasize. (See Comma Rule D)

Examples:
Janet won the grand prize-a trip to the Bahamas-from the local radio station.
Mary is saving for a new bike-a Trek 5000.

(Note that you need to type two hyphens to make a dash.)