MTEL Communication Literacy Skills : Writing Practice Test

What is an incorrect use of a colon?

1. My favorite holidays are Christmas, New Year's Eve, and Halloween

2. My favorite holidays are: Christmas, New Year's Eve, and Halloween

3. My hobbies include: reading, traveling, and swimming

4. My hobbies include reading, traveling, and swimming

The correct answer is: My favorite holidays are: Christmas, New Year's Eve, and Halloween

The use of a colon in the context provided is to introduce a list or emphasize a conclusion. In the case of the second option, the colon follows a complete sentence but precedes a list of items that could be directly stated without it. The structure "My favorite holidays are" already completes a thought, making the colon unnecessary and resulting in an incorrect grammatical construction. In well-structured writing, colons should typically come after an independent clause when what follows is a list, explanation, or elaboration. Thus, "My favorite holidays are: Christmas, New Year's Eve, and Halloween" disrupts the flow by incorrectly inserting a colon before the list, which should simply follow the statement without punctuation in this instance. In contrast, the other options present grammatically correct formats either by avoiding unnecessary punctuation or correctly using commas to separate items in a list.