Bloggers in Fantasyland (A Quick Refresher in Punctuation and Correct Colon Use)
Few bloggers set out to give readers the impression that they’re writing from an imaginary land. Yet that’s the impression one writer unintentionally gave some while ago in a post for an online news service through incorrect use of the colon (“:”).
In a post titled “Just Build Trump’s Stupid Wall Already,” the writer tore into then-GOP frontrunner Donald Trump’s idea of building a wall along the American-Mexican border as a way of preventing illegal immigration.
Citing financial, logistical and political issues as clear evidence of the idea’s ludicrousness, the writer added, “Actually, there are a few other pesky details to work through. They come from a place I like to call: the real world.”
As an oft-misused punctuation mark, the colon has two basic functions:
To connect two independent clauses (sentences) when the second explains or expands on the first.
To introduce a list.
A few examples of the latter:
“I require the following cookie ingredients: butter, sugar, flour and chocolate.”
“Don’t forget the camping essentials: bug spray, water, matches and toilet paper.”
“I’m looking for an assistant with a specific skillset: research, data input and management skills.”
By incorrectly placing a colon after the verb call to introduce a list of one item (which is not a list), the writer had effectively written the following:
There’s a place I like to call once in a while. It’s called the real world, and it’s filled with pesky details, which may explain why I prefer to call rather than actually visiting.
Had the writer simply removed the colon, his sentence would have reflected his true intent to call Trump’s idea a foolish illusion.
With the colon in place, the sentence pretty much placed the writer in the same illusory location. And that’s pretty much never a great location in which to place your name, your reputation or your client’s reputation as a writer.
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