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    Colon and Semicolon With Exercises

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    Colon and Semicolon With Exercises

    Uploaded by

    basson.patricia33
    10 views2 pages
    English

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    Colon and Semicolon with exercises

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    10 views2 pages

    Colon and Semicolon With Exercises

    Uploaded by

    basson.patricia33
    English

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    of 2

    COLON and SEMICOLON

    Use a colon after a complete statement to introduce related details. DO NOT use a
    Colon colon after “are” or “include” or “such as”. Colons can introduce a list, a quotation,
    an example, an emphatic assertion, or an appositive.

    Colons can introduce: Examples:


    His backpack is filled with school supplies: a graphing calculator,
    A List
    textbooks, and a laptop computer.
    In “Old Times on the Mississippi,” Mark Twain describes the river
    A Quotation
    town he grew up in: “After all these years I can picture that old
    time to myself now, just as it was then. . .”
    An Example He participates in many sports: baseball and golf are his favorites.
    This is your last chance: If you don’t turn in all your assignments,
    An Emphatic Assertion
    you won’t pass the class.
    An Appositive (renames
    Finally the announcer introduced the speaker we had all come to
    or identifies the material
    hear: Maya Angelou.
    preceding the colon)

    Exercise: Write a sentence of your own in the space below each example, demonstrating the SAME use of the
    colon.
    1. Her purpose in entering the track race was simple: to win.
    _______________________________________________________________________________________

    2. She had enjoyed the experience of meeting three of her favorite authors: Tim O’Brien, John Grisham, and
    Anne Quindlen.
    _______________________________________________________________________________________

    3. When George went into his supervisor’s office, he forgot his planned speech and blurted out: “I demand a
    raise.”
    _______________________________________________________________________________________

    4. My favorite line from Shakespeare is:


    _______________________________________________________________________________________

    5. These points may be summarized as follows: make a firm commitment, work hard, and ask questions when
    you need to.
    _______________________________________________________________________________________

    Brought to you by the Purdue University Online Writing Lab


    Rev.11/18
    A semicolon is used to join two independent clauses when the second clause
    SEMICOLON
    restates the first or when the two clauses are of equal emphasis.

    Semicolon Use: Examples:

    1. Use a semicolon to separate clauses of


    Cecilia’s car wouldn’t start; she had left the
    compound sentences having no coordinating
    lights on all day.
    conjunction.

    2. Use a semicolon to separate clauses of


    compound sentences joined by a transitional Lucio studied hard all semester; therefore, he
    word (nonetheless, therefore, nevertheless, received a good grade in his English class.
    however, etc.)

    The college choir is traveling to St. Louis,


    3. Use a semicolon to separate elements of a
    Missouri; Miami, Florida; and Phoenix,
    series in which items already contain commas.
    Arizona.

    Exercise

    1. Write two original sentences that require a semicolon to join two main clauses that have closely related
    ideas.

    2. Write two original sentences that require a semicolon to join two main clauses that are connected by a
    transitional word.

    3. Write two original sentences that require a semicolon to separate elements of a series in which items already
    contain commas.

    Brought to you by the Purdue University Online Writing Lab


    Rev.11/18

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