A colon consists of two dots, one above the other and looks like this ":"
The colon is used you are writing a list of items.
For example: You will need to bring three things to the party: some food, something to drink, and a small gift for hostess.
In the sentence above, the colon tells you "here are the three things".
You can also use a colon when you are writing an explanation or definition of something.
Example: I'll tell you what I'm going to do: I'm going to quit! or "Elephant (noun): a large grey mammal found in Africa and India."
Colons are important because they are an important writing tool that allows to succintly list items and this helps to improve the quality of your writing.
We hope this page has helped expand your knowledge of colons and how to use them.
Draft: Semicolons
semicolon consists of a dot and a comma, with the dot on top and the comma below and it looks like this ";"
The semicolon is used to seperate two independent clauses. (i.e. sentences)
For example: Dan likes cats; Sarah likes dogs.
You may notice that the word "but" could take the place of the semi-colon. This is because a semi-colon is typically used to suggest a relationship between two clauses but not have it extremely clear to the reader.
A semicolon may be used in this fashion by the author to help encourage higher thinking on the reader's part by not having a clear-cut connection.
Another common usage of semicolons is with transition words such as "however" or "therefore."
Examples include: "John is Canadian; however, he lives in the United States." or "Hundreds of people cross the border from the US to Canada every day; therefore, it is not possible to search all of them carefully."
Very few people understand semicolons or how to utilize them correctly; hopefully, this page has helped expand your knowledge of writing tools.