Which is punctuated correctly?

Question

A. I baked many items for the bake sale: banana and blueberry muffins; chocolate and
lemon cupcakes; and blackberry and cherry pie.
B. For my birthday I received: a new bike that I plan to use in a race next month and a gift
card to a local bookstore.

Answer 1

The sentence that is punctuated correctly is:

A. I baked many items for the bake sale: banana and blueberry muffins; chocolate and lemon cupcakes; and blackberry and cherry pie.

In this sentence, the colon is correctly used to introduce a list, and semicolons are appropriately used to separate the complex items in the list.

Sentence B incorrectly uses a colon after "received," as there is no complete independent clause before the colon. Instead, it should simply list the items without the colon.