Ouch! Sorry about the pun!

Yes, the colon is part of the body that we don’t mention in polite conversation, but it’s also a useful and much (mis)used punctuation mark. In the context of punctuation the colon has one main purpose, and it’s very easy to grasp. The two little dots are used to separate a more general thought, which comes first, from a more specific example or explanation, which follows it

The part before the colon is always a complete sentence, but the part after it doesn’t need to be: it can be a single word, a whole sentence or a list of items (see what I did there?)

Here are some examples of colons in action:

You’ll never believe what my wife gave me for my birthday: tickets to see Coldplay

Being a creative writing student is hard work: motivation, perseverance and creativity are all essential factors if you’re going to do well

The semicolon is equally misunderstood and, consequently, misused

Its main use is to join two complete sentences that balance each other but don’t work especially well as separate sentences. Another way of thinking about the semicolon is that it’s a break between two ideas that’s longer than a comma and shorter than a full stop. You have time to breathe, but you don’t want to let the first idea drop completely before you start the second one

I read the book in one evening; it wasn’t very helpful

Art is so important to me; it’s a part of everyday life

A second use of the semicolon is to separate items in lists, particularly when the list is preceded bu a colon or when the listed elements contain commas

There are three main places I want to visit for my art project: Barcelona, for the Sagrada Familia; the Picasso exhibition in Bruges; and Paris, to see the Mona Lisa in the Louvre

If you can use a semicolon with confidence, you’re essentially showing the world that you’re at the top of your punctuation game