I've tackled the colon, the semi-colon and the hyphen in one article because for me, they were the hardest punctuation marks to learn to use. Remember that these tutorials are not meant to be all inclusive, they're just simple pointers in the right direction to writing English correctly.
The colon is no longer generally used. Some writers hardly ever use this punctuation mark at all. I think that this may be because there are several other better understood marks which can be used in its place.
When to use a colon
Even though I keep my colon use to a minimum, I use it to introduce a list. However, as we've seen before, short lists can be just as easily introduced with a comma.
1. Use a colon to introduce a list
For a longer and more complex list, you may want to use the colon. Look at the following example.
- These tutorials so far consist of three lessons. They are: lesson one - the apostrophe. Lesson two - the comma and the full stop. Lesson three - the colon, semi-colon and the hyphen.
I chose to use the colon in this case because there were several parts to my complex list. Another reason was because I used many other punctuation marks in my sentences and I felt that the colon made my list read a lot easier and clearer than a comma would've done.
2. Use a colon to break up a long sentence
- In order to find a date, a balding man should do the following: get rid of his comb over, purchase a bottle of baby oil, employ a polisher, steal a copy of "The Magnificent Seven," and stay away from furry animals with a tendency to nest on one's head.
When to use a semi-colon
I think the fact that the semi-colon is slipping out of use is because it is not one of those necessary punctuation marks like the comma or the full stop. A semi-colon usually denotes a stop which is shorter than a full stop, but longer than a comma.
I have outlined the two most common uses for the semi-colon. These are the ones I mainly use. If the clauses get any more complicated than the examples shown below, I normally would re-write the thought into shorter, separate sentences
1. Use a semi-colon to separate lists where more information is given about one particular item.
- When I arrived at the picnic site he had already laid out: A vase, flowers included; some pancakes, smeared with "I can"t believe it's not butter' spread; two glasses of wine, chilled and dark; a small furry animal just about to nest on his shining head.
Notice that because I'd used commas after the items, I had to then use semi-colons after the individual explanations or else this long sentence would've been extremely unclear and difficult to read. Only use semi-colons for lists like these. If you've got a straightforward list, it's best to just use a comma.
2. Use a semi-colon to join two sentences which are connected.
- The furry animal was slow in climbing; it had gotten hold of the chilled, dark wine.
I did not use a full stop because the pause would've been too long and would not have properly shown the reader the connection between the two thoughts. I could not use a comma here because the pause would've been way too short for the reader to get the consequential connection between the two.
Note: the semi-colon has more uses than have been illustrated here. The ones mentioned here are generally made use of on a wider scale, in everyday writing.
When to use a hyphen
Do not confuse a hyphen with a dash. A hyphen is used when you want to shorten the pause (and the relationship) between words, whereas a dash (which we will look at in another tutorial) lengthens the pause.
1. Use a hyphen to make your meaning clearer
- Yesterday we had two hour long tutorials.
Are we talking about two tutorials that lasted for an hour each, or are we referring to one tutorial which was two hours long?
To make the meaning of this sentence clear, we can re-write it in either of these two ways:
- Yesterday we had a two-hour long tutorial.
Or
- Yesterday we had two hour-long tutorials.
In the above demonstrations, you can see how using a hyphen can make your meaning clearer to your reader.
2. Use a hyphen to link words together to make a compound word.
Most people understand the use of hyphens to make compound words like mother-in-law, court-martial, up-in-arms, etc.
