Learn English – How to make a statement and then iterate through a list thereafter

grammarsentence

I would like to state a fact, and then, if possible, in the same sentence, iterate over a list of properties related to that fact.

Here are a few examples:

The construction site had two entrances: one to the east, and one to the west.

or

The construction site had two entrances, one to the east; and one to the west.

Is either of these the preferred method? Are there ways of saying this in a similar fashion that would be correct or 'more preferable'?

EDIT: I've recently found this >
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/semicolon < which suggests the semicolon method is the right way to go. I'll leave the question here to invoke any comments.

Best Answer

Your first example looks quite nice:

The construction site had two entrances: One to the east and one to the west.

I, personally, prefer capitalizing the letter after the colon, though British people tend to use lower case.

Your second example is wrong. You can use the semicolon to connect two sentences but one to the west is actually not a full sentence. Moreover you use the conjunction and to connect the two parts and then you only can place a comma precedent to and but not a semicolon.

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