a list
The daily exercise routine should include at least the following: ten minutes of stretching, forty abdominal crunches, and a twenty-minute run.
an appositive
My roommate seems to live on two things: Twizzlers and Twitter.
a quotation
Consider the words of Benjamin Franklin: “There never was a good war or a bad peace.”
a summary or an explanation
Faith is like love: It cannot be forced.
The novel is clearly autobiographical: The author even gives his own name to the main character.
note: For other ways of introducing quotations, see “Introducing quoted material” in P5-e. When an independent clause follows a colon, begin with a capital letter. Some disciplines use a lowercase letter instead. See MLA-5a, APA-5a and CMS-5a for variations.