Colons Use a colon to introduce a list, quotation, or explanation.
If they apply to the sentence as a whole they go outside. Parentheses Commas, dashes, and parentheses can all be used to set off parenthetic elements. There are no clearly defined rules to help you decide which to use. Punctuation with parentheses Commas, periods, colons, and semicolons always stand immediately outside the final parenthesis. Quotation marks and exclamation marks stand immediately inside the final parenthesis if the material is a question or exclamation.