What Does a Colon Do?

A Mild Rude-Humor Writing Question

Unlike human anatomy, a lot of writing gets along fine without having a colon. Many wordsmiths communicate clearly without ever penning this mark. Nonfiction writers venture the most into colon use, finding places, especially, for its obligatory roles: noting times, biblical citations, and lists. But fiction writers, sadly, seem to want to hide the colon and its function from view.

How should writers approach the colon? Is it useful, or is it, like an English professor wearing a top hat, too stiff and formal? What does a colon do to make it worth looking into?

As author and literary agent Noah Lukeman explains, the colon adds elegance and dramatic power, especially in fiction. Luckily, examining the health of your literary colons need not require drinking a foul-tasting, thick liquid; proper colon usage relies on following a few simple rules and understanding dramatic nuance.
 

What Is a Colon?

A colon is that vertical, two-dot symbol under your pinky on the keyboard, also known to some as the eyes of a smiley face. Despite the antics of some authors and an ambiguous note in the Chicago Manual of Style (CMS),[*] the colon is not interchangeable with its winking half-brother, that vertical dot-comma symbol we call the semicolon. The closest challenger for the colon’s job is, instead, the dash. Like a colon, a dash can announce a long appositive or summary of what comes before it with considerable flair. But the semicolon has only half the dots of a colon and also half the drama; clauses on both sides of a semicolon must be grammatically complete.

Lukeman describes the colon as

the magician of the punctuation world. It holds its audience in suspense, waits until just the right moment, then voilà: it pulls back the curtain to reveal the result. It sits on the very peak of drama, with all that comes before building to it, and all that follows a denouement. As such, it is one of the most effective punctuation marks to propel a word or clause into the limelight. (A Dash of Style, 91)  

Who knew? The colon: a magician that creates limelight. Tell that to your rumbly tummy.

Important Regulation for Your Colon

Certain rules make your colon function to its best capacity:

1. Colons generally require an independent clause (grammatically complete sentence) beforehand.[†]

✘ I want to tell you: you use your colon wrong.
✘ The author ran from the room because: her nerves had taken charge.
✓ I want to tell you something: your colon is brilliant.
✓ The author ran from the room: her nerves had taken charge.

2. In informal writing, where authors have more leeway toward creative use of incomplete sentences, a colon may take the place of an understood (elided) verb. Use this construction sparingly as it calls much attention to itself. 

✓ The colon: a magician that creates limelight.
✘ The history: Sir John Harington invented a version of the modern flush toilet in the late sixteenth century. (Avoid this construction in formal or academic writing.)

3. Never use a colon to separate a preposition from its object or a verb from its complement. (You may compliment your colon, however, as much as you wish.)

✘ Her diet includes: fiber, protein, minerals, and vitamins.
✘ Her diet relies on: fiber, protein, minerals, and vitamins.
✓ Her diet includes fiber, protein, minerals, and vitamins.
✓ Her diet includes these four components: fiber, protein, minerals, and vitamins.

4. While a colon can follow a verb of speaking/writing to introduce a direct quote, especially if introducing a block quote, it’s best to use a comma in these cases. If you do use a colon to follow verbs of speaking, do so consistently.

✓ (Rarely) She replied: Everyone should have their colons checked by a good editor. Unchecked colons may result in an undetected proliferation of abnormal punctuation. ✓ (Better) She replied, “Everyone should have an editor check their colons.”

5. Use a colon rather than a comma when the quote introduction constitutes an independent clause.

✘ The colon doctor was alarmed by what she saw, “You have rogue commas all over this page!”
✓ The colon doctor was pleased by what she saw: “Your double dots are right where they belong.”

6. Lowercase the first word following a colon except when it introduces two or more sentences or is followed by a p­­­roper noun, speech (in dialogue), a direct quote, or a question.[‡]

✘ She brought three items to her colon test: A pen, paper, and her style book.
✓ The grammarian resolved to improve colon use everywhere: She planned to start by making colon discussions normative in every home. By bringing these mysterious dots out in the open, she would remove the shame associated with their regular use.

Move from Utilitarian to Elegant

Anyone can hold a rabbit, but it takes a magician to pull one out of a hat. Whether in fiction or nonfiction, the accomplished colon user knows just how to build suspense and then pull back the curtain to reveal a moment of poignance, surprise, or transformation.

Lukeman notes that while we can write many sentences without a colon, “the highly visual colon helps us immediately distinguish two parts of the sentence, to know that we are crossing a threshold” (92). He provides several examples of how this threshold can function, two of which I will list here. In the first, a sense of revelation is necessary to give the character’s statement impact; in the second, a pause is needed amid a single thought to allow the thought to sink in.

Consider the difference between the following constructions:

I grabbed my bag, put on my coat, and stepped out the door, as I wasn’t coming back.

I grabbed my bag, put on my coat, and stepped out the door: I wasn’t coming back. (92)

And these:

I want to tell you that I love you.

I want to tell you something: I love you. (96)

In both cases, those tiny dots become elegant spotlights.

As a warning, those spotlights can become addictive, especially when we see every sentence and phrase we write as important. So remember that good drama builds to a climax while melodrama overemphasizes every syllable or point. Choose the right time to pull back the curtain with a colon—not every paragraph, nor even every page, and certainly not more than once in a paragraph.

If your colon is acting up, you might need to dash. But if you can master the colon, you’ll have all of its dramatic power resting under your little finger.

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[*] CMS 6.61 says of the colon, “Between independent clauses it functions much like a semicolon (see 6.56), and in some cases either mark may work as well as the other; use a colon sparingly, however, and only to emphasize that the second clause illustrates or amplifies the first.” Their caveat after the semicolon (ironically) tells me that a colon has a more specific function than a semicolon, and the two should not be interchanged without considering that the difference also changes the meaning and force of the whole sentence.
 

[†] Consistent with their goal to shorten lines published in column format, the journalistic Associated Press (AP) style allows for incomplete clauses before a colon. Most style guides and grammar manuals reject this option. It should be avoided in fiction, which follows CMS rules. 
 

[‡] If you are a journalist writing with (AP) style or if you use American Psychological Association (APA) format, your publication may require capitalization of any complete sentences that follow a colon. Be sure to check with them.