How Sherlock Holmes can help to improve punctuation!

This recent series of posts has been focusing on how to improve writing by using Sherlock Holmes stories.

Today's post is about a rarely used punctuation mark: the colon!

Students often shy away from using it, but as an English tutor I teach this punctuation skill as it can really improve the complexity and elegance of anyone's writing style.

The simplest way to use a colon is to introduce a list without having to use extra words.

Example

Sherlock Holmes had all of his equipment: a notebook, a pen and a magnifying glass.

Have a go - or ask your child to have a go, if you are helping them - at writing some examples of your own, using a colon to introduce a short list.  I’ve helped you with the first two.

1. I looked around his room and noticed three different things : ...?

2. On his table were…?

3. ...?

If you'd like to know more about using colons and semicolons, my ebook in the Hartland English Guides series, called A Dash of Punctuation : Colons and Semicolons can help.

You can find out more about it here.