Introduction to lists. When writing a list in sentence style, your introduction should be an independent clause, otherwise the colon is not justified. However, a colon is not always needed to introduce a list. Examples: You know what to do: practice. "Rain, sleet, snow, hail, sun: an umbrella will work for me, Mabel." You may be required to bring many things: sleeping bags, pans, utensils, and warm clothing. A colon can be used to introduce a list when the introductory phrase is an independent clause. Colons are also commonly used in prose to introduce quotations. To introduce a list of items. I … If each item on the list is a complete sentence, you should always capitalize the first letter and finish with a period (or question mark or exclamation point, if appropriate). Use a colon to introduce an item or a series of items. Introduction to lists. Words like “including” or “such as” are often used to introduce examples that further explain something mentioned in the sentence. Colons can introduce a list, while commas are used to separate items in a list. Essays may need to encompass lists that could throw off the design, structure, and grammar of the piece. Make sure not to use a colon after the verbs to be or to include. This page has examples of colons before lists and an interactive exercise. When using a colon to introduce a list in this way, capitalization and ending punctuation aren’t always necessary. Rule 2: this symbol can be used in between two sentences as long as the second clause illustrates the purpose or meaning of the first. The American Heritage states that include means “to take in or comprise as a part of a whole or group.” Likewise Merriam-Webster’s emphasizes that “Include suggests the containment of something as a constituent, component, or subordinate part of a larger whole.”. Examples to Make the Point. Create list relationships - Create a relationship between two lists, in the source list, you create a lookup column that retrieves (or "looks up") one or more values from a target list if those values match the value in the lookup column in the source list. Introducing a list. If it is used to highlight a list in a sentence, then the first clause must be independent. Consider the following sentences that preface a list with include: If the list of items is quite a long one, you also need to use punctuation to introduce it. To announce, introduce, or direct attention to a list, a noun or noun phrase, a quotation, or an example/explanation. Colons Can Introduce Quotations. My garden has four kinds of flowers: daffodils, tulips, roses, and chrysanthemums. Rule 1: a colon can be used to introduce a list in a sentence or one that is numbered or bulleted. You can introduce bullet points (or any vertical list) with a colon. Introduce the series and then write out the series after a colon. 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