The Use of Colon, and the Word Hence

Question

Good morning, teacher! I have been unsure of the usage of colon, and the word hence. Could you please help me check if I am using them correctly, and if my sentences are correct?

John is a tenacious person: He’s been spending three hours on English every weekday, and 10 hours a day on weekend, hence his being famous for his close to native speakers’ level English.

Wearing many different hats, I have many tasks to conduct: normal students’ routines, self-studying English, blogging, and teaching English, hence not having time for gossiping.

Great Thanks in Advance

Canadian45 · Accepted Answer

You are asking about two separate issues. I will address the colon here.
There are two requirements for the correct use of a colon.

1) What comes before the colon must be an independent clause. That is, it has to be able to stand alone as a grammatically correct and complete sentence.
2) What comes after the colon gives additional information about the part berfore the colon.

I have two favorite desserts: pumpkin pie and chocolate cake.

My favorite desserts are: pumpkin pie and chocolate cake.

My favorite desserts are pumpkin pie and chocolate cake.

(no colon)

Lucus Ong2....John is a tenacious person: He’s .......
The underlined and bolded part represents a very common mistake in colon use. As a colon cannot end a sentence, the capital H is wrong because it's part of the same sentence. Either use a period instead of the colon or use the lower-case 'h'.

The following is another very common mistake in colon use.

My questions are:
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Lucus Ong2 · Answer

Thank you very much for your clear explanation. It has deepened my understanding of the use of colons; however, I still want to know if I'm using it correctly, except from the capitalization issue. How about the word hence? Thanks.

Canadian45 · Answer

Lucus Ong2Thank you very much for your clear explanation. It has deepened my understanding of the use of colons; however, I still want to know if I'm using it correctly, except from the capitalization issue. How about the word hence? Thanks.

If you wish, you can write some more colon sentences for practice and to see if you have any mistakes.
I don't have time now to say much about "hence", but its punctuation is the same as the correct punctuation you used with "however". There is no special relationship between "hence" sentences and colons. Write some shorter "hence" sentences, if you wish.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/hence

Lucus Ong2 · Answer

Actually, I have read the rules of the punctuation colon, and the word hence before. I wrote the two sentences above just to see if I understand them and use them correctly. Could you tell me if I use them correctly in these sentences and if there are any grammatical mistakes in these sentences?

Colon
John is a tenacious person: he’s been spending three hours on English every weekday, and 10 hours a day on weekend, hence his being famous for his close to native speakers’ level English.

Wearing many different hats, I have many tasks to conduct: normal students’ routines, self-studying English, blogging, and teaching English, hence not having time for gossiping.

Hence
He’s been spending three hours on English every weekday, and 10 hours a day on weekend, hence his being famous for his close to native speakers’ level English.

Wearing many different hats, I have many tasks to conduct, hence not having time for gossiping.

Great Thanks in Advance

Canadian45 · Answer

Lucus Ong2Actually, I have read the rules of the punctuation colon, and the word hence before. I wrote the two sentences above just to see if I understand them and use them correctly. Could you tell me if I use them correctly in these sentences and if there are any grammatical mistakes in these sentences?
I don't understand why you are associating colons with "hence" so much. Some of your sentences are not natural English sentences. For one thing, it's unusual to have the part of the sentence after colon so much longer than the part before the colon. In the sentence below, I would use a period.

Lucus Ong2Colon
John is a tenacious person. He’s been spending three hours on English every weekday and 10 hours a day on weekends. Hence, he is famous for his almost native-speakers’ English level.

Wearing many different hats, I have many tasks to conduct; hence, I have no time for gossiping.

Lucus Ong2 · Answer

Thank you so much for your help. I still have some questions. I have separated them into two parts, so that it'll be easier for you to explain.

Part1. Colon
"John is a tenacious person. He's been spending three hours on English every weekday and 10 hours a day on weekends. Hence, he is famous for his almost native-speakers' English level."

"Faulkner's private life was a long struggle to stay solvent: even after fame came to him, he had to write Hollywood scripts and teach at the university of Virginia to support himself. "

The first one is the corrected sentence. And the second one is a sentence that I saw in a book. In both sentences, the part after the colon is longer than the part before the colon. Could you tell me how to tell if a sentence is natural in this kind of cases? Is there any rule? or pattern? As a non-native speaker, I find it hard to tell if a sentence is natural.

Part2. Hence
I know that hence can be used in this sentence pattern "Hence, an independent clause."
The reason that I wrote ", hence his being famous for his almost native-speakers' English level" is because I want to learn how to use hence like the sentence below.

"We suspect they are trying to hide something, hence the need for an independent inquiry."'
"hence + noun phrase"

Wearing many different hats, I have many tasks to conduct; hence, I have no time for gossiping.

Is there any way you can change it into "hence + noun phrase" structure, and maintain its naturalness?

Is this sentence okay?
The new policy has caused an angry backlash from the people, hence its cancellation.

Canadian45 · Answer

Lucus Ong2Part1. Colon
"John is a tenacious person. He's been spending three hours on English every weekday and 10 hours a day on weekends. Hence, he is famous for his almost native-speakers' English level." "Faulkner's private life was a long struggle to stay solvent: even after fame came to him, he had to write Hollywood scripts and teach at the university of Virginia to support himself. "The first one is the corrected sentence. And the second one is a sentence that I saw in a book. In both sentences, the part after the colon is longer than the part before the colon.
I wonder if a native speaker wrote those sentences, because I don't think they are very suited to the use of a colon. The part after the colon can be longer than the part before, but it should not go on and on and on. A period or a semicolon is much more suitable in that sentence.

Could you tell me how to tell if a sentence is natural in this kind of cases? Is there any rule? or pattern? As a non-native speaker, I find it hard to tell if a sentence is natural. The following is a reference on colon use. http://www.writingcentre.uottawa.ca/hypergrammar/colon.html The first sentence shows the classic use of a colon, but I don't mean that the sentences always have to be that short.

I will address part 2 later
.

Clive · Answer

Hi,

Here's a very minor and personal aside.
As a native speaker, I've used English all my life. I rarely use a colon, and I don't remember the last time I used a semi-colon.

Clive

Canadian45 · Answer

CliveHi,Here's a very minor and personal aside.As a native speaker, I've used English all my life. I rarely use a colon, and I don't remember the last time I used a semi-colon.Clive

That's interesting. I now don't do much writing away from this site and I also very rarely use a colon. But I do use a semicolon much more often.

RandomGuy · Answer

I would feel crippled without my colon and semicolon.

The Use of Colon, and the Word Hence

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