by Matt Hart
Eg.: The coat is tattered beyond repair; still, Akaky hopes the tailor can mend it.
Eg.: Present at the symposium were Henri Guillaume, the art critic; Sam Brown, the Daily Tribune reporter; and Maria Rosa, the conceptual artist.
Colons:
Eg. [list]: The reading list includes three American novels: Moby Dick, The Country of the Pointed Firs, and McTeague.
Eg. [elaboration]: The plot is founded on deception: the three main characters have secret identities.
Eg. [rule or principle]: Many books would be briefer if their authors followed the logical principle known as Occam's razor: Explanations should not be multiplied unnecessarily. [A rule or principle after a colon should begin with a capital letter.]
Eg.: Shelley held a bold view: "Poets are the unacknowledged legislators of the World" (794).
Punctuation and quotations:
Eg.: "Read 'Kubla Khan,'" he told me.
Eg.: Did he attack "taxation without representation"?
Eg.: He declared, "I believe taxation without
representation is tyranny!"