Am I using this colon correctly? "Additionally, I have a persevering mindset because I do not give up in my long term goals: For instance, becoming an Eagle Scout." Thanks for the help!
Hmmm... looks a little funny, but I think you can get away with it. "For" would be lowercase after the colon, though. And you should be using "on" instead of "in" before "long term goals." I'd probably reword it to eliminate the "for instance," which I think is causing the funny looking (but probably necessary?) colon in the first place. Something like: (now that's a good colon right there!) "Additionally, I have a persevering mindset because I do not give up on my long term goals. Like becoming an Eagle Scout." ETA: paging @Seven Crowns
I wouldn't use a colon here--I'd use a hyphen. Also, it's "on", not "in" Additionally, I have a persevering mindset because I do not give up on my long term goals--for instance, becoming an Eagle Scout. A colon would be OK if you lost the "for instance" and made it listlike: Additionally, I have a persevering mindset because I do not give up in my long term goals: becoming an Eagle Scout, maintaining a straight B+ average, and breeding a superior dryfarm tomato. I don't like the "because". "Because" calls for a reason: I cook because I'm hungry. But you instead are using it to present evidence: I cook because I make scrambled eggs. That feels off. I'd split the sentence: I cook. I make scrambled eggs. So I'd split your sentence: Additionally, I have a persevering mindset. I do not give up on my long term goals--for instance, becoming an Eagle Scout.
I'm deferring to Seven Crowns for the rules. But, this piece of colon advice from an old newspaper editor has helped me tremendously: Think of a colon as setting the stage for presenting a fantastic piece of information, and use it accordingly. It's the P.T. Barnum of punctuation.
I use colons in a sentence only for phrases in a list. "At the end of his run, he was thinking only of three things: a warm bed, a cold drink, and a massage."
I've read a lot of technical stuff, white pages and so on, and a lot of times I would see it as..."Additionally, I have a persevering mindset because I do not give up on my long-term goals, i.e., becoming an Eagle Scout." I changed 'in' to 'on' and compounded 'long-term' and deleted because....