:Colon:

The colon(:) is my favourite punctuation mark. The reason? Because of this: It's simple, effective, and elegant.

The colon is used to introduce a distinct concept. It's the 'introduction' punctuation mark. It creates a nice pause, long enough to give the reader a breather, yet short enough to keep them there.It creates anticipation, thus spurring the reader to read on. It creates continuity. The 'pause' helps emphasize the point to be made.

The colon is also a relatively simple punctuation mark to use. It's not confusing like the apostrophe. It's quite easy to know when it's not supposed to be used: usually after verbs.

The colon is one if the writer's powertools. It is, sadly, underused. Throwing in a colon here and there adds more variety.

So remember:"The Colon Is Your Friend"!