Earth Science
03. Punctuation - colons
The colon has two major uses:
- to introduce a list (as here)
- to separate two parts of a sentence, where the second part provides more information about or clarifies the first.
Colons should never be followed by a hyphen (-), and the first word that follows the colon is not capitalised except if the word is part of a quote, and is capitalised already. For example:
Marshak is very clear: 'The island owes its existence to a large volcanic hot spot sitting on a mid-oceanic ridge'.
Examples of lists are:
- Three types of Earth scientists were vital to the project: cartographers, seismologists and volcanologists.
- There are four main uses for colons: introducing lists; separating two parts of sentence; introducing quotations; and writing ratios.
A colon also leads a reader to expect more detail:
- Mantle plumes leave a trail of extinct volcanoes in their wake: the Hawaiian Islands are a good example.
- To summarise: there are various tectonic settings at which different kinds of volcanism occurs.
| Task | Task Type | Difficulty |
|---|---|---|
| Task 1 | Free text | Moderate |
| Task 2 | Multiple choice | Easier |
| Task 3 | Free text | More Challenging |
| Task 4 | Free text | More Challenging |
| Task 5 | Word click | Easier |
| Task 6 | Free text | More Challenging |