The results of the fiction contest are still unknown because I can't make up my mind because I'm letting the tension build. In the meantime, let's pay a visit to the Land of Grammar!

A Sparkler sent me an email with the subject line "hook," the question, "Is this right?" and the sentence, "The people were desperate as they crowded around the opportunity to receive what they needed, consumption in a time of starvation."

I see three wrongs and one right.

Colons do several things. They're a highly useful little marks of punctuation.

Colons indicate that you're about to elaborate.
Rachel's plan was simple: camp out for as long as it took.

Today, I got two emails that overlapped perfectly with each other.

The first:

I really need help with semi colons, colons, and commas. Sometimes when I get a question I believe its supposed to be a semicolon but it turns out to be colon.

The second: