Editing Colon (punctuation) (section)

===Segmental===

Like a [[dash]] or [[quotation mark]], a segmental colon introduces [[speech]]. The segmental function was once a common means of indicating an unmarked quotation on the same line. The following example is from the grammar book ''[[The King's English]]'':

:''Benjamin Franklin proclaimed the virtue of frugality: A penny saved is a penny earned.''

This form is still used in British industry-standard templates for written performance [[dialogue]]s, such as in a [[play (theatre)|play]].<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.nycplaywrights.org/p/playscript-template.html |title=Playscript template |access-date=2023-03-13 |archive-date=2023-03-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230313163929/https://www.nycplaywrights.org/p/playscript-template.html |url-status=live}}</ref> The colon indicates that the words following an character's name are spoken by that character.

:''Patient: Doctor, I feel like a pair of curtains.''
:''Doctor: Pull yourself together!''
The uniform visual pattern of <code>&lt;character_nametag : character_spoken_lines></code> placement on a script page assists an actor in scanning for the lines of their assigned character during rehearsal, especially if a script is undergoing rewrites between rehearsals.