1.21 The Colon

Functions of the Colon

A colon is used to introduce lists, give emphasis, and present dialogue. Notice that portions of the text in the examples have been underlined. The underlining indicates that complete sentences precede the colon. Remember to provide a complete sentence before the colon.

Introduce lists

Use a colon to introduce lists. The underlined sentences show that the colon is preceded by a complete sentence.

• To prepare for tomorrow’s meeting, do the following: read our quarterly report and prepare a list of recommendations.
• When dealing with potential clients, successful sales people do the following:
  • dress appropriately
  • ask customers about their needs
  • provide timely follow through.
• Our company specializes in three areas: tax compliance, financial statement reviews, and audits.

Give emphasis

Use a colon to provide emphasis. While this is an effective technique, do not overuse it. Overuse diminishes its efficacy.

• Our manager had one goal: to increase sales by 20%.
• The analysis revealed that we need only two things to succeed: employee engagement and management’s cooperation.

Present Dialogue

Use a colon to introduce extended quotations (more than 40 words). Do not use quotation marks, use single spacing for the quotation, and indent it from the left margin.

Example: Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Workweek (2007), encourages people to simply get things done:

The stars will never align, and the traffic lights of life will never all be green at the same time. The universe doesn’t conspire against you, but it doesn’t go out of its way to line up the pins either. Conditions are never perfect. ‘Someday’ is a disease that will take your dreams to the grave with you. Pro and con lists are just as bad. If it’s important to you and you want to do it ‘eventually,’ just do it and correct course along the way.

Example: Thomas J. Watson, 2nd President of IBM, comments of the benefits of failure:

Would you like me to give you a formula for success? It’s quite simple, really: Double your rate of failure. You are thinking of failure as the enemy of success. But it isn’t at all. You can be discouraged by failure or you can learn from it, so go ahead and make mistakes. Make all you can. Because remember that’s where you will find success.

Common Colon Mistakes

To avoid these common mistakes, remember that the information preceding the colon must be a complete sentence.

Do not use a colon between a verb and its object or complement

Do not use a colon between a preposition and its object

Do not use a colon after “such as,” “including,” “especially,” and similar phrases

Capitalize the first letter after a colon or not

Different citation styles (such as MLA, APA, Chicago, and AMA) have slightly different rules regarding whether to capitalize the first letter after a colon. APA recommends capitalizing the first word after the colon only if it begins a complete sentence or if it is part of a title.

• The type of business communication to use is determined by two things: audience and purpose.
• Before they begin to write, careful business communicators think about two things: They examine both the audience and purpose of an intended communication.
• Bill Birchard provides useful writing tips in his article: “The Science of Strong Business Writing”.