Colons and Semicolons

Colons and semicolons are often confused, leaving readers confused as well. Here are the differences between the two.

Use a colon to:

•       Introduce an idea (‘Here is my suggestion: follow the signal to Neptune immediately’).

•       Introduce a list (‘The following three points are vital: 1. Do it. 2. Do it now. 3. Do it well’).

•       Introduce quoted material (‘Here’s what Dracula actually said: “I want your blood!”’).

Use a semicolon to:

•       Punctuate complicated lists where commas alone could create ambiguity.

Example:

‘The minute taker generally does the following: takes notes during the meeting; tidies up these notes after the meeting; distributes the minutes to the relevant people; files minutes for future reference.’

In the example above, a colon introduces the list, while semicolons separate the items on the list. The semicolons indicate very clearly where each item begins and ends.

Also use a semicolon to:

•       Separate closely related independent clauses.

Example:

‘He couldn’t sleep; the pain in his leg was severe.’

Here the semicolon suggests a link between the two elements (sleeplessness and pain) without stating it explicitly. The semicolon could be replaced by a full stop, but not by a comma.

Hyphens and Dashes

Use a hyphen to join words that describe a noun when they come before it, but not after. Here’s what I mean:

‘a nineteenth-century portrait’ but ‘a portrait of the nineteenth century’

‘a well-made film’ but ‘the film is well made’

See the difference? Try to think of your own examples.

Here’s where you shouldn’t use a hyphen (but where I see the error all the time): don’t use a hyphen where the compound is formed with an adverb ending in –ly.

What do we mean by this? Here are some examples:

‘a badly executed plan’ not ‘a badly-executed plan’

‘a beautifully presented bouquet’ not ‘a beautifully-presented bouquet’

You can see the difference. Think of some more examples.

You’ll have noticed by now that there is a lot of variation in the use of hyphens. One of the most important that you need to watch is in words that begin with

non, anti, hyper, co, pre, post, bi, counter, semi, inter, over, under

These are called prefixes. Words beginning with these prefixes can be spelled either with or without a hyphen. US English, for example, might use ‘nongovernmental’, while UK English might use ‘non-governmental’. The choice is yours.

As a general rule, if a word like this is in frequent use and is pronounced as a single word, e.g. ‘postwar’, it is usually perfectly okay to write it as one word without a hyphen: there’s no need to be hypersensitive or hyper-sensitive about hyphens, but be consistent!

The best advice is to check in the dictionary (there are plenty online) and to be consistent.

Here’s another extremely common error with hyphens that confuses and irritates readers:

‘A few weeks ago-I think it was a Tuesday-I met my best friend for dinner.’

In this example, I think it was a Tuesday is a parenthetical element (it could be left out without changing the meaning of the main sentence). Parenthetical elements can be separated from the rest of the sentence by commas before and after or by a longer form of the hyphen (a dash), like this:

‘A few weeks ago – I think it was a Tuesday – I met my best friend for dinner.’

Or this:

‘A few weeks ago—I think it was a Tuesday—I met my best friend for dinner.’

You can use either an en dash (–) or an em dash (—), as I have here.

Don’t use hyphens instead of longer parenthetical dashes; they look unprofessional and they immediately make readers suspicious!

Summary

Avoid these few punctuation errors and your book will really shine.

Remember the rules and the exceptions to the rules.

If in doubt, look back at this section and try to find your own examples.