One way to recognize activated abilities by the format [cost]: [effect]. Activated abilities are the only ones that use a colon. Everything that appears before the colon is a cost of the ability and must be paid when the ability is played. Abilities that require that you tap the permanent with the ability will have the tap symbol before the colon. If an ability has you tap other permanents, or the effect of the ability taps a permanent then the word ‘tap’ will be used instead. The tap symbol is only used to denote when a permanent it tapped to pay the activation cost of an ability, not to describe an effect.