Is it permissible to use a colon in the following manner?
I am currently working on a first novel (I am in the final stages of development) and would like to know whether the following use of the colon is
correct or not: Firstly, please take time to brainstorm all the negative thoughts, opinions, thoughts, feelings, and beliefs about yourself below. Why do some people feel uncomfortable about me? I should be a life of party. But he has failed me at school and failed.” “I can suck at conversations. I can’t stand my conversation. ” Focus on identifying “MotivationsThank
you!
What is your opinion about a particular topic?
Why did you use colons in semicolon sentences? How may one use my example, while legitimate, are informal, and sometimes give the reader more pause than necessary? Your sentence works well in my opinion, but if you are picky… You might think it better constructed as a dependent clause introducing a list of elements that are independent clauses, in which case the sentence should probably look more like this. Examples could include
“People feel uncomfortable around me,” “I should be the life of the party,” or “I suck at conversation.” In
this instance, I think the choice is between following grammatical conventions with which fewer people will take issue (the revised sentence) and expressing yourself more clearly (the original sentence).
