Not embarrassing when using colons and semicolons

Colons and semicolons are punctuation indie rocks. They are not mainstream-as popular as the times. They are not obvious and please like the exclamation mark. They are not like commas everywhere.But for colons and semicolons passion.. They are eccentric, sneaky, and sometimes thorny. These I used to use cool punctuation, but it’s like Jean Love Jezebel’s Jay and Michael Aston. They are siblings, but they are not twins and do not always get along with each other.

The right way to use a colon: two small points that can tell a lot

The colon has many nasty uses. Introduce items or lists, separate closely related independent phrases, introduce longer quotes, and introduce bulleted or numbered lists. It is also often used after greetings in more formal correspondence.

If the second sentence emphasizes, illustrates, or describes the first sentence, you can use a colon instead of a period or comma to connect the two independent clauses.

I’m not going to the Sisters of Mercy show. I didn’t have enough eyeliner.

When used in this way, the colon can be “read” like “because” or “thus”.

Using a colon to introduce a list looks like this:

Neutral Milk Hotel has early Pink Floyd, Minuteman, Anne’s diary.

The colon can be used after “next” or “like”, but not after “for example”, “contains”, “etc.”, or “ie”. In such cases, use commas.

A colon is often used after the speaker’s name to represent a conversation or quote.

Like Mountain Goats, John Daniel said in “The Greatest Death Metal Band Ever in Denton”:

If you want to cite a longer one, use a colon. Do the same if you want to display a numbered list or a list that uses bullets, as follows:

Here is the track list for Big Black’s original 1986 album Atomizer:

1) Jordan, Minnesota

2) Pass the complexion

3) Big money

4) Kerosene

5) Bad house

6) Fist of love

7) A stinking drunkard

8) Bazooka Joe

9) Strange things

10) Cable (live)

You may use a colon after the greeting. The famous one is after “who is involved”. This usage used to be cool, but now it seems to be overly formal, stuffy, and ironically enough.

Dear NME: I’m still angry with the lukewarm review of The Stone Roses’ first album.

All cool people add a space after the colon. It’s not cool to use a capital letter after a colon, except in some situations. When introducing a list, capitalize the first word after the colon only if it is a proper noun.

If the second phrase after the colon can stand as a complete sentence, it should usually not be capitalized. However, some argue that long sentences can be capitalized. (Some people think Pablo Honey It’s a better album OK Computer, But that doesn’t make them right. ) [Editor’s note: This site’s style is to capitalize standalone phrases after a colon, so. Also, OK Computer is overrated.]

If you want to dig a colon as deep as digging a crate at a local second-hand record store, consider a double colon. It looks like this: “::” and in the analogy, used in the famous SAT test. When writing an analogy, instead of writing “W for X, Y for Z”, you can write “W: Z :: Y: Z” as in the following analogy.

Dag Nasty: 1986 :: My Chemical Romance: 2003.

Double colons are also used in some programming languages, but I’m not a geek, so I don’t know how to do that.

How to use semicolons: you probably need to get rid of them altogether

Semicolons have three uses. Link independent but closely related phrases, combine sentences with conjunctions followed by commas, and replace commas in the list if the commas are confusing. Semicolons are not used to link independent and dependent phrases such as colons and commas.

If the period is too mainstream, you can use a colon or semicolon to separate two closely related independent phrases. However, when you try to decide which one to use, your hair will get a little thinner. This confusing situation is one of the causes of these two marks. UK and US tend to be used differentlyBut overall, the semicolon is read as a bit more conversational. The colon is a little more formal. Compare the following.

It was the best show ever. The Galaxie 500 was played with the original lineup.

It was the best show ever. The Galaxie 500 played with the original lineup.

It’s subtle, isn’t it? However, if you use a semicolon, you have to worry about ambiguity.

Things become very clear when you enter the adverbs of conjunctions such as “further”, “still”, “but”, and “again”. These should include a semicolon as follows:

She put in a Moby CD. As a result, I asked her to leave my house.

The true starring moment of a semicolon occurs when presenting a list that is confusing when the list is separated by commas, as follows:

Joy Division’s lineup was vocalist Ian Curtis. Bernard Sumner, guitar and keyboard. Peter Hook, Bass; Drummer Stephen Morris.

Last important note about the colon

If I am old enough to understand the musical references I am doing, I need to schedule a colonoscopy every 5 years.