Dreyer's English - Benjamin Dreyer 2022

Colons
56 assorted things to do (and not to do) with punctuation
The stuff in the front

16.

Colons say: Here comes something! Think of colons as little trumpet blasts, attention-getting and ear-catching. They add drama.

Consider these examples, from Jennifer Longo’s What I Carry:

Alone in the loud dark, I knew: there was no way I could survive staying still, all by myself, for an entire year.

“I’ve had these dishes in storage for years. Figured it was safe to bring them out: you don’t strike me as a plate thrower.”

A colon can also connect two sentences when the second amplifies or clarifies the first.

His outfit made me dizzy: his pants were red plaid, his shirt was purple paisley, and his tie was striped yellow and green.

But colons can also be obnoxious, a little like that guy who stands up in the middle of a movie to shout and wave his arms at his friends. So don’t use so many of them that you give your reader a headache.^*6