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Jack
Guest
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| Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2004 2:06 pm
Post subject: Colon usage |
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What is the rule on the first word after a colon? Should it be
capitalized? I understand if it is a quote I should probably capitalize
it. Right? What if it is just the beginning of a list?
Thanks people.
Jack
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CyberCypher
Guest
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| Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2004 2:06 pm
Post subject: Re: Colon usage |
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Jack wrote on 12 Nov 2004:
| Quote: | What is the rule on the first word after a colon? Should it be
capitalized? I understand if it is a quote I should probably
capitalize it. Right? What if it is just the beginning of a list?
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It does not have to be capitalized and, many style manuals say, it
should not be capitalized.
You're welcome, animal.
--
Franke: EFL teacher & medical editor
For email, replace numbers with English alphabet. |
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Charles Riggs
Guest
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| Posted: Fri Nov 12, 2004 10:06 pm
Post subject: Re: Colon usage |
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On 12 Nov 2004 09:11:17 GMT, CyberCypher
<cybercypher@19-16-25-13-01-03.com> wrote:
| Quote: | Jack wrote on 12 Nov 2004:
What is the rule on the first word after a colon? Should it be
capitalized? I understand if it is a quote I should probably
capitalize it. Right? What if it is just the beginning of a list?
It does not have to be capitalized and, many style manuals say, it
should not be capitalized.
|
Fuck `em. I say that if it is a quote, the first word should
definitely be capitalized. Look how silly this looks, for example:
One of Richard's favorite responses to posts, when nothing else seems
better, is this uninformative comment: oy!
--
Charles Riggs
They are no accented letters in my email address
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Bill Bonde ( ``And the La
Guest
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| Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2004 3:06 am
Post subject: Re: Colon usage |
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Charles Riggs wrote:
| Quote: |
On 12 Nov 2004 09:11:17 GMT, CyberCypher
cybercypher@19-16-25-13-01-03.com> wrote:
Jack wrote on 12 Nov 2004:
What is the rule on the first word after a colon? Should it be
capitalized? I understand if it is a quote I should probably
capitalize it. Right? What if it is just the beginning of a list?
It does not have to be capitalized and, many style manuals say, it
should not be capitalized.
Fuck `em. I say that if it is a quote, the first word should
definitely be capitalized. Look how silly this looks, for example:
Sure a quote, maybe even something else that can seriously stand as an |
independent sentence.
--
So I was feeding the hummingbirds but not changing the feeder sugar
water quickly enough and it fermented into something like that stuff
that Hunter S Thompson was drinking in the Rum Diary, anyway, so I had
these drunk birds flying everywhere just like mosquitoes in Minnesota,
dashing up one side of me, darting down the other, crashing into the
windows, falling off their perches, didn't even know they perched,
flying backwards, flying backwards, it was like something out of the
Exorcist. After a while though, I got bored with it all. Next Summer I'm
going to Alaska to feed french bread soaked in Wild Turkey to polar
bears. Wish me luck! |
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CyberCypher
Guest
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| Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2004 12:02 pm
Post subject: Re: Colon usage |
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Charles Riggs wrote on 13 Nov 2004:
| Quote: | On 12 Nov 2004 09:11:17 GMT, CyberCypher
cybercypher@19-16-25-13-01-03.com> wrote:
Jack wrote on 12 Nov 2004:
What is the rule on the first word after a colon? Should it be
capitalized? I understand if it is a quote I should probably
capitalize it. Right? What if it is just the beginning of a list?
It does not have to be capitalized and, many style manuals say, it
should not be capitalized.
Fuck `em. I say that if it is a quote, the first word should
definitely be capitalized. Look how silly this looks, for example:
|
Yeah, but I was responding to the question about the list. The OP seems
to have understood that a quote requires capitalization. I agree with
you here.
| Quote: | One of Richard's favorite responses to posts, when nothing else seems
better, is this uninformative comment: oy!
|
--
Franke: EFL teacher & medical editor
For email, replace numbers with English alphabet. |
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Cece
Guest
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| Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2004 9:00 pm
Post subject: Re: Colon usage |
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| Quote: | Jack wrote on 12 Nov 2004:
What is the rule on the first word after a colon? Should it be
capitalized? I understand if it is a quote I should probably
capitalize it. Right? What if it is just the beginning of a list?
Forty years ago, the rule was: If the colon is followed by an |
independent clause, a sentence, capitalize! Otherwise, don't.
I think that, nowadays, the capitalization of a complete sentence
after a colon is optional.
Cece |
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Qp10qp
Guest
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| Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2004 9:01 pm
Post subject: Re: Colon usage |
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| Quote: | Subject: Colon usage
From: "Jack" jackhird@gmail.com
What is the rule on the first word after a colon? Should it be
capitalized? I understand if it is a quote I should probably capitalize
it. Right? What if it is just the beginning of a list?
Thanks people.
Jack
|
There's nothing wrong with using a capital, in the right circumstances, though
in most cases it is not required. My 1993 Edition Chicago says: "If the
material introduced by a colon consists of more than one sentence, or if it is
a formal statement, a quotation, or speech in dialogue, it should begin with a
capital letter. Otherwise it may begin with a lowercase letter".
In practice, those uses are all self-evident to me (I wouldn't consider *not*
using a capital) except for the "formal statement" one, which I presume means a
statement by the author rather than by anyone else (which would be a
quotation). The example given is:
I wish only to state the following: Anyone found in possession of forged papers
will immediately be arrested.
But that's such an overemphatic form that I wouldn't use it (I'd say "state
that . . ."). A politician or a spokesman might, though; and a reporter of the
speech (depending on the house manual) might justifiably use the capital.
However, I find the Chicago's "should" too strong. It is all right, surely, to
make statements after colons without using a capital letter. For example:
One thing about Lionel's phone call bothered me: he's been dead for fifteen
years.
or:
I will say this for Morag: she's by a long chalk the noisiest eater of yogurts
in High Wycombe.
Peasemarch. |
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Maria Conlon
Guest
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| Posted: Sat Nov 13, 2004 9:01 pm
Post subject: Re: Colon usage |
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Qp10qp used the following examples when writing about using a capital
(or not) after a colon:
| Quote: | One thing about Lionel's phone call bothered me: he's been dead for
fifteen years.
or:
I will say this for Morag: she's by a long chalk the noisiest eater
of yogurts in High Wycombe.
|
Fascinating sentences. One wants to know more.
Maria Conlon |
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Bill Bonde ( ``And the La
Guest
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| Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2004 12:01 am
Post subject: Re: Colon usage |
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Maria Conlon wrote:
| Quote: |
Qp10qp used the following examples when writing about using a capital
(or not) after a colon:
One thing about Lionel's phone call bothered me: he's been dead for
fifteen years.
or:
I will say this for Morag: she's by a long chalk the noisiest eater
of yogurts in High Wycombe.
Fascinating sentences. One wants to know more.
And one wishes that the colon was replaced with a comma, in both cases. |
--
"Throw me that lipstick, darling, I wanna redo my stigmata."
+-Jennifer Saunders, "Absolutely Fabulous" |
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Skitt
Guest
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| Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2004 12:01 am
Post subject: Re: Colon usage |
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Bill Bonde wrote:
| Quote: | Maria Conlon wrote:
Qp10qp used the following examples when writing about using a capital
(or not) after a colon:
One thing about Lionel's phone call bothered me: he's been dead for
fifteen years.
or:
I will say this for Morag: she's by a long chalk the noisiest eater
of yogurts in High Wycombe.
Fascinating sentences. One wants to know more.
And one wishes that the colon was replaced with a comma, in both
cases.
|
I'd go with dashes.
--
Skitt (in Hayward, California)
www.geocities.com/opus731/ |
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Maria Conlon
Guest
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| Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2004 12:01 am
Post subject: Re: Colon usage |
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Bill Bonde wrote:
| Quote: | Maria Conlon wrote:
Qp10qp used the following examples when writing about using a capital
(or not) after a colon:
One thing about Lionel's phone call bothered me: he's been dead for
fifteen years.
or:
I will say this for Morag: she's by a long chalk the noisiest eater
of yogurts in High Wycombe.
Fascinating sentences. One wants to know more.
And one wishes that the colon was replaced with a comma, in both
cases.
|
Then you'd have run-on sentences.
And I wouldn't have used a comma after "comma" in your sentence. A dash
would have been my choice -- that or nothing at all.
YMMV.
Maria Conlon |
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Bill Bonde ( ``And the La
Guest
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| Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2004 3:00 am
Post subject: Re: Colon usage |
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Skitt wrote:
| Quote: |
Bill Bonde wrote:
Maria Conlon wrote:
Qp10qp used the following examples when writing about using a capital
(or not) after a colon:
One thing about Lionel's phone call bothered me: he's been dead for
fifteen years.
or:
I will say this for Morag: she's by a long chalk the noisiest eater
of yogurts in High Wycombe.
Fascinating sentences. One wants to know more.
And one wishes that the colon was replaced with a comma, in both
cases.
I'd go with dashes.
Like James Joyce in Ulysses? |
--
"Throw me that lipstick, darling, I wanna redo my stigmata."
+-Jennifer Saunders, "Absolutely Fabulous" |
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Bill Bonde ( ``And the La
Guest
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| Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2004 3:00 am
Post subject: Re: Colon usage |
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Maria Conlon wrote:
| Quote: |
Bill Bonde wrote:
Maria Conlon wrote:
Qp10qp used the following examples when writing about using a capital
(or not) after a colon:
One thing about Lionel's phone call bothered me: he's been dead for
fifteen years.
or:
I will say this for Morag: she's by a long chalk the noisiest eater
of yogurts in High Wycombe.
Fascinating sentences. One wants to know more.
And one wishes that the colon was replaced with a comma, in both
cases.
Then you'd have run-on sentences.
I believe that many sentences called 'run-on' are really not, that there |
are two ways of reading the words out loud and the correct reading can
depend on the punctuation, but then I'm a realist about my modern
post-modernist punctuation philosophy and know that others will surely
disagree.
| Quote: | And I wouldn't have used a comma after "comma" in your sentence. A dash
would have been my choice -- that or nothing at all.
I used to agree but at some point determined that what was needed wasn't |
more use of the dash, colon, brackets or, God forbid, the semicolon, but
instead something else, something new, the semicomma. The comma, the
semicomma and the full stop could be used in free variation by the
writer to put in those little pauses, medium pauses and big pauses that
help make a sentence more easily understood when they are used in the
spoken language.
--
"Throw me that lipstick, darling, I wanna redo my stigmata."
+-Jennifer Saunders, "Absolutely Fabulous" |
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Maria Conlon
Guest
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| Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2004 6:00 am
Post subject: Re: Colon usage |
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Bill Bonde wrote:
| Quote: | Maria Conlon wrote:
Bill Bonde wrote:
And one wishes that the colon was replaced with a comma, in both
cases.
Then you'd have run-on sentences.
I believe that many sentences called 'run-on' are really not, that
there are two ways of reading the words out loud and the correct
reading can depend on the punctuation, but then I'm a realist about
my modern post-modernist punctuation philosophy and know that others
will surely disagree.
|
Surely.
| Quote: | And I wouldn't have used a comma after "comma" in your sentence. A
dash would have been my choice -- that or nothing at all.
I used to agree but at some point determined that what was needed
wasn't more use of the dash, colon, brackets or, God forbid, the
semicolon, but instead something else, something new, the semicomma.
The comma, the semicomma and the full stop could be used in free
variation by the writer to put in those little pauses, medium pauses
and big pauses that help make a sentence more easily understood when
they are used in the spoken language.
This semicomma -- what does it look like? Half a comma? Or a short |
straight line, half above and half below the base line? And if it
indicates a pause longer than one indicated by a comma, why it is not a
double comma?
Maria Conlon |
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J. W. Love
Guest
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| Posted: Sun Nov 14, 2004 6:00 am
Post subject: Re: Colon usage |
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Someone wrote:
| Quote: | What is the rule on the first word after a colon? Should it be
capitalized? I understand if it is a quote I should probably
capitalize it. Right? What if it is just the beginning of a list?
|
Except for the Book of Common Prayer, the default has traditionally---as in the
King James Bible, Dryden, Defoe, Swift, Addison & Steele, Dr. Johnson, Dickens,
Thackeray, Melville, Stevenson, Hardy, et al.---been to lowercase it, and to
capitalize it only for a reason (it's a proper name, a quotation, the first
word of a line of verse, etc.). That remains the style of the most estimable
publications, e.g. the _New Yorker_ and the _Times Literary Supplement._ |
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