The Grammar Business © 2001 Glenrothes College The Grammar Business Part Three 3. Using colons, semi-colons and dashes

The Grammar Business © 2001 Glenrothes College 2 Colons (:) are used To introduce a list –e.g. To make puff pastry you require the following ingredients: plain flour, salt, butter.

The Grammar Business © 2001 Glenrothes College 3 Colons (:) are also used To introduce an explanation (or expansion of what has just been said) e.g. She couldn’t eat another thing: she had already consumed a seven-course meal.

The Grammar Business © 2001 Glenrothes College 4 And a colon (:) may be used To introduce a quotation –The following statement was released from Downing Street: “No further comment at this time.”

The Grammar Business © 2001 Glenrothes College 5 Or To introduce a set of bullet points. For example You should always bear in mind: your assailant may be armed s/he may not like you s/he may have martial arts training

The Grammar Business © 2001 Glenrothes College 6 The old punctuation sign that looks like this :- is dead so don’t use it you have to hit TWO keys on a keyboard even to make it appear A colon can do all the same things for much less effort!

The Grammar Business © 2001 Glenrothes College 7 A semi-colon (;) joins two clauses usually to draw attention to the contrast but sometimes to point the similarity For example: –“She was charming; he was rude.” –“He was Algerian; she was Rumanian.” –“He was fed up; so was she.”

The Grammar Business © 2001 Glenrothes College 8 Or a semi-colon (;) may separate items on a list, if the items are wordy (instead of a comma) e.g. She went to the grocers and bought two pounds of Conference pears; five large, pink, luscious grapefruits; a pineapple which was reduced by 50 pence; and finally a huge bunch of beautiful red grapes.

The Grammar Business © 2001 Glenrothes College 9 It is wrong to use a semi- colon (;) To introduce a list (it can only separate items on the list) To introduce a set of bullet points To substitute for a comma just because you think it looks nice

The Grammar Business © 2001 Glenrothes College 10 Dashes (-) Should not be confused with hyphens A hyphen joins two words together and makes one e.g. semi-detached Hyphens have no spaces round them: they take up the same space as an ordinary letter inside a word whereas dashes always have a single space before and after - like - this.

The Grammar Business © 2001 Glenrothes College 11 Dashes (-) Can be used to make an emphatic pause –e.g. How can I wear - this? To indicate an explanation will follow (like a colon but more dramatic) –e.g. She was just a baby - barely four months old.

The Grammar Business © 2001 Glenrothes College 12 Dashes (-) may also be used to indicate a hesitation or interruption –“I think I should - er - go now.” –“Please help me,” she screamed. “I -” or to separate points of information, like bullets, as they do on this slide

The Grammar Business © 2001 Glenrothes College 13 And two dashes can be used to separate a piece of information from the rest of the sentence e.g. She was going to get out the little sharp vegetable knife - the one she had carefully sharpened the previous day - and she was going to threaten to cut his throat. This way of using dashes helps the reader see the main thread of the sentence

The Grammar Business © 2001 Glenrothes College 14 In business or formal writing You often need to use a colon (:) Semi-colons (;) are occasionally useful Dashes ( - ) are rarely used in business writing, but frequently occur in short stories or newspaper reports For further information on this, ask for Handout Two.

The Grammar Business © 2001 Glenrothes College 15 And finally There’s the new use for colons, semi-colons and dashes in curious combinations :-) in signifies a smile ;-) is a wink and a smile :-( is too sad to explain…