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Punctuation | by EnglishHelp | 2004-10-07 14:01:14 |
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Can we ask questions in these threads? | by purplepineapple | 2004-10-08 03:59:53 |
| The difference between : and ; |
by Matthewdba |
2004-10-08 06:39:19 |
(between semicolon and colon)
The semicolon is where the food is absorbed into the system, and the colon gets rid of the rest. :-)
Seriously, though, they're both used to help combine two sentences that could stand independently into a single sentence. I'm going back to my "Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association", and here's what it says (paraphrased):
If you have two sentences (say, "I got up at six o'clock" and "I went to bed at ten") you can join them with a conjunction and put a comma in between ("I got up at six o'clock, then I went to bed at ten"), or you can put a semicolon in with no conjunction ("I got up at six o'clock; I went to bed at ten"). You also use semicolons to separate a list of items in which at least one item contains commas ("On the bed there were a white pair of pants; a long, brown scarf; and a woolen hat"). This last rule is often ignored in less formal writing, or in literary writing; I don't have my Modern Language Association style manual around, so I don't know if it insists on this usage as well.
A colon is used to join a complete sentence with a phrase or a clause that explains or illustrates it. If the follow-up (the second part) is a complete sentence, it starts with a capital letter; otherwise, it starts with a lower-case letter.
(Complete follow-up sentence with capital letter)
She got a phone call that morning: Her friend was in the hospital.
(Single-phrase follow-up thought)
He had two problems: the credit-card bill and the mortgage payment.
Does that help? |
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[ Reply ] |
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Yes, it does indeed! | by purplepineapple | 2004-10-08 22:43:00 |
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