A colon is used to give emphasis, present dialogue, introduce lists or text, and clarify composition titles. Emphasis—Capitalize the first word after the colon only if it is a proper noun or the start ...

The most common way to use a semicolon is to help join closely connected ideas in a sentence. These sections must be independent and complete sentences, but closely linked in some way. A full stop ...

If you use the wrong one, you can always claim it was a typo. | Dominique James/iStock via Getty Images Plus Despite what its name suggests, a semicolon isn’t exactly just half a colon—it has its own ...