Here's something I've noticed in newspapers for which I find no clear-cut rule.
There seem to be two ways of approaching what follows a colon, and that is to capitalise or not to capitalise. Which is it?
I've seen people do this: They capitalise the first letter following the mark. I've seen others who do it such: they don't. My own leaning is towards the latter, as I was always taught that the colon provides for a continuation of a sentence, rather than helps to begin a new one. Does anyone know of any MLA ruling or any such King's English grammatical rule that would shed light on this?
The second sentence of a colon
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Questions on Colonsthe rule is simple: If the material following the colon is a complete sentence, it begins w ith a capital letter.
I didn't know this one either: I have never capitalized (except the pronoun "I") after a colon, even if it was a complete sentence.
Thanks for asking, lazuliangel! And thanks for making the challenge, JJ!
Apo
'Experiments are the only means of knowledge at our disposal. The rest is poetry, imagination.' -Max Planck
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So now we know!
Fantastic, Apo! Cheers for that.
I feel a bit ashamed for having heavily censored the poor Irish Times journalists now...
I feel a bit ashamed for having heavily censored the poor Irish Times journalists now...
The Swedish rules are a bit more wordy, but in essence the same: If what follows is a direct quote or quotation, or an exhortation, exclamation or a question, or when more than one sentence follows, use a capital.the rule is simple: If the material following the colon is a complete sentence, it begins with a capital letter.
But if that were Swedish, I would have used lower case ': if' ("explanation, summary or the like"). Then, the 'complete sentence' rule loses.
Irren ist männlich
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Re: The second sentence of a colon
The copy-editor for a book I've just completed (for W. W. Norton, New York) imposed this rule that if what follows the colon is a complete sentence, it should begin with a capital. I had never heard of this before, no British copy-editor in my experience has adopted it, and I have never yet seen the rule applied in a printed book. It must be very new.Here's something I've noticed in newspapers for which I find no clear-cut rule.
There seem to be two ways of approaching what follows a colon, and that is to capitalise or not to capitalise. Which is it?
I didn't quibble -- there are more important things to worry about -- but, yes, I'd like to know who first had the idea and why.
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To me capitalizing the second clause interrupts flow too drastically. It is, after all, part of the same sentence. I prefer to keep it lowercase.
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The Chicago Manual of Style:
"If the material introduced by a colon consists of more than one sentence, or is a formal statement, a quotation, or a speech in dialogue, it should begin with a capital letter. Otherwise it may begin with a lower case letter."
Note there is an unexpected amount of flexibility here:
SHOULD begin and MAY begin. The former suggests a capital letter is not compulsory while the latter suggests that a capital letter would be equally acceptable.
For those seeking simple rules, I would suggest always using a capital letter to take advantage of the flexibility of the latter while satisfying the strongly urged recommendation of the former.
"If the material introduced by a colon consists of more than one sentence, or is a formal statement, a quotation, or a speech in dialogue, it should begin with a capital letter. Otherwise it may begin with a lower case letter."
Note there is an unexpected amount of flexibility here:
SHOULD begin and MAY begin. The former suggests a capital letter is not compulsory while the latter suggests that a capital letter would be equally acceptable.
For those seeking simple rules, I would suggest always using a capital letter to take advantage of the flexibility of the latter while satisfying the strongly urged recommendation of the former.
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