Teaching Others

The 7th rule of Elementary Usage:

Use a colon after an independent clause to introduce a list of particulars, an opposiitive, an amplification, or an illustrative quotation.

Now what does this mean? What is a colon? What is a independent clause, oppositive, amplication, or illustrative quotation? Oh god did you forget all your terms, don't worry I got you homez.

Well the colon is this thing > : My entire life I've seen it used to provide a definition for a specific word, it's always in dictionaries (ex. dictionary: a book), so I assumed that this symbol's sole purpose is to define a single entity. I never thought it would have a function in writing, but it does. In the words of the our book,

"A colon tells the reader that what follows is closely related to the preceding clause ... AND SHOULD NOT SEPARATE A VERB FROM ITS COMPLEMENT AND OR A PREPOSITION FROM ITS OBJECT".

A wrong example of separating a verb from a complement: "A dedicated student requires: a goal, a will to work hard, and the will to scarifice unimportant things". This sentence has already done the deadly sin of separating the verb "requires" from its complement.
A better example: "A dedicated students requires three things: a goal, a will to work hard, and the will to scarifice unimportant things". Here the verb "requires" is not separated from its complement, and we can happily add a colon to this sentence.

A wrong example of separating a preposition from its object: "Bodybuilding is a sport that stems from: dedication, consistency, and hard work". We have done the deadly sin of separating the preposition "from" from its object "dedication", and reading this should already sound a bit weird because that colon rewinds the flow of this sentence.
A better example: "Bodybuiding is a sport that stems from dedication, consistency, and hard work". In my opinion and what I have learned from this book, a sentence like this does not require a colon at all.

Other things you could do with colons. JOIN two independent clauses, ONLY IF THE FIRST AMPLIFIES THE FIRST: "A colon tells the reader that what follows is closely related to the preceding clause". I used a colon right here>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>^ to explain the other way you could use a colon. When you want to introduce a quotation that supports or comtributes to the preceding clause.

Now theres other places where we use colons, like when we write a letter or email (Dear Mr.Pangier: ...), when you write time (12:30), Bible titles (Nehemiah 11:7), etc... Now you should be able to see the basic rule of the colon clearly, a colon works to show what is preceding is very closely related to the last clause. Just like how theres thousands of colons in a dictionary to provide definitions to words, the colon in writing to defines and shows you that the words preceding a colon and in front of it are closely related.

If you still don't understand, eHow always got a video on anything.

Quiz yourself and see if you really understand how to use colons.

(Press the colon to go to the link)

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Part 5: Rule #6

Do not Overwrite

These are one of the sins that I do, maybe because I'm an only child and I want everybody else to know everything about me. Remember you cannot out every single detail in your writing.

As an example, the best novels I have read, like In Cold Blood, contained instances without enough information, or gaps information, the novel jumped from one scene to another, giving you information bits at a time. This is very good because the author gave us leeway to imagine. Imagine how the Clutters got murdered, the motives of the murderes and so much, we wanted to know the information BAD, he reeled us in and he slowly uncovered it to our anxious minds. This in my opinion is good writing, it enagages the reader. So do not put every dot of information you know, then there is nothing for the reader to feel like they have discovered something on their own. Readers are like little kids, you gotta make them feel good about themselves, make it look like they investigated the murder just like the story does too.

Now for writing essays because we live in the age of the computers we can write much faster than we could before. Theres online theasuruses to help us find new words, to help us add more fluff in our writing.

Well heres the cruel truth guys. Nobody likes to be overweight, it lowers your self-esteem, slows you down, and shortens your life, nobody likes fluff. The same analogy is true for writing, nobody likes all the extra adjectives and unnessacary fluff. It's easy for a person to became fat, but its even harder to get rid of that fat through discipline and consistent hardwork. The same goes for your writing, I know that extra fluff is hard to let go of, but you have go through the painful process to end up with a more refined product.

This skill is very important, I stress very important because it not only makes your writing better, but it helps you get into college, you know how. The SAT. The writing section of the SAT really stresses on shortening sentences. Heres just one of the many questions just like this they test you on.

See how these sentences sound so much better by shortening them. These are all questions from the collegeboard's own online SAT prep course. Don't tell anyone I'm not supposed to take screenshots of these without permission, shhhhhhhhh.

I took these question from my SAT online course, and this lesson was called "How To Improve Sentences", and 50% of that lesson. Was just on making sentences more concise.

If the SAT wants you to shorten your writiing, then you know you gotta do it.

Drummmmmmmmm Rooooooolllll please.

The correct answer is C, you know why, cause its shorter and also because its parrallel with the first clause.