You’ve probably seen these two little dots, one on top of the other, scattered throughout your reading material. But do you really know what they’re used for? The colon is not something that shows up ...

A colon is used to give emphasis, present dialogue, introduce lists or text, and clarify composition titles. Emphasis—Capitalize the first word after the colon only if it is a proper noun or the start ...

Colons are one of the most misunderstood punctuation marks. Many people think they are only used to introduce lists, but they can be used for much more. For example, colons can introduce quotations, ...

Some interesting stuff landed in the mailbag for this week. Let’s dive in. First comes a question about a column in which I wrote: “Never use an apostrophe to form a plural unless it’s necessary for ...

For writers at work, punctuation can slip from a matter of convention to one of obsession. I just finished my poetry thesis last week, and I’m embarrassed to admit the number of times I changed ...