The COLON:

Use a colon [:] before a list or an explanation that is preceded by a clause that can stand by itself.
Think of the colon as a gate, inviting one to go on:
There is only one thing left to do now: confess while you still have time.
The charter review committee now includes the following people:
the mayor
the chief of police
the fire chief
the chair of the town council
You nearly always have a sense of what is going to follow or be on the other side of the
colon. You will find differing advice on the use of a colon to introduce a vertical or display
list.
We will often use a colon to separate an independent clause from a quotation (often of a
rather formal nature) that the clause introduces:
The acting director often used her favorite quotation from Shakespeare's Tempest: "We are such stuff
as dreams are made on; and our little life is rounded with a sleep."
With today's sophisticated word-processing programs (which know how much space to
put after punctuation marks), we insert only one space (hit the space-bar only once) after a
colon.
It might be useful to say, also, when we don't use a colon. Remember that the clause that precedes
the mark (where you're considering a colon) ought to be able to stand on its own as an independent
clause. Its purpose might be strictly to introduce the clause that follows, so it might feel rather
incomplete by itself, but grammatically it will have both a subject and a predicate. In other words, we
would not use a colon in situations like the following:
Her recipe for gunpowder included saltpeter, dry oatmeal, and ground-up charcoal
briquets. (no colon after "included")
His favorite breakfast cereals were Rice Krispies, Cheerios, and Wheaties. (no colon after
"were")
Her usual advice, I remember, was "Keep your head up as you push the ball up the court."
(no colon after "was")
One of the most frequently asked questions about colons is whether we should begin an
independent clause that comes after a colon with a capital letter. If the independent clause
coming after the colon is a formal quote, begin that quoted language with a capital letter.
Whitehead had this to say aout writing style: "Style is the ultimate morality of mind."
If the explanatory statement coming after a colon consists of more than one sentence,
begin the independent clause immediately after the colon with a capital letter:
There were two reasons for a drop in attendance at !"# games this season: $irst% there was no
superstar to take the place of &ichael 'ordan. Second% fans were disillusioned aout the misehavior of
several prominent players.
If the introductory phrase preceding the colon is very brief and the clause following the
colon represents the real business of the sentence, begin the clause after the colon with a
capital letter:
(ememer: &any of the prominent families of this !ew )ngland state were slaveholders prior to *+,-.
If the function of the introductory clause is simply to introduce, and the function of the
second clause (following the colon) is to express a rule, begin that second clause with a
capital:
.et us not forget this point: #ppositive phrases have an entirely different function than participial
phrases and must not e regarded as dangling modifiers.
There is some disagreement among writing reference manuals about when you should
capitalize an independent clause following a colon. Most of the manuals advise that when
you have more than one sentence in your explanation or when your sentence(s) is a formal
quotation, a capital is a good idea. The NYPL Writer's Guide urges consistency within a
document; the Chicago Manual of Style says youmay begin an independent clause with a
lowercase letter unless it's one of those two things (a quotation or more than one sentence).
The APA Publication Manual is the most extreme: it advises us to alwayscapitalize an
independent clause following a colon. The advice given above is consistent with the Gregg
Reference Manual.
We also use a colon after a salutation in a business letter . . .
/ear Senator /odd:
0t has come to our attention that . . . . .
. . . and when we designate the speaker within a play or in court testimony:
"0$$: 1e had the wrong dreams. #ll% all% wrong.
1#223 4almost ready to fight "iff5: /on't say that6
"0$$: 1e never knew who he was.