January 2020: The Colon

The colon. It's a tricky punctuation mark for native and nonnative writers alike! The biggest tip to remember for correct colon usage is that the colon is only used after a complete sentence and not after a sentence fragment.

Below are four correct examples of colon usage:

1. I considered three research designs: experimental, research problem, and descriptive case study.
2. I discovered the following themes:
   • well-planned on-boarding
   • peer mentoring
   • asking about employees’ needs
   • engaging employees
3. The research question was as follows: What instructional strategies do elementary math teachers use to ensure comprehension?
4. Participant 5 shared the following: “All teachers need to be challenged in order to continue improving their teaching practices. Sometimes, however, it’s hard to push oneself. This is when mandatory professional development can be very useful.”

For more help with usage, visit our webpage on colons.

Revision Tip: Look through your latest draft of your capstone study. If you used any colons, check that there are complete sentences, not sentence fragments, before them. Revise as needed.