Thursday, September 28, 2017

Capitals and Colons, or, A Grammar Moment

In the post below, on Banned Books Week, the author of the quoted excrept (the article is from the NYTimes) uses a colon twice, and a lower case letter on the next word once and an upper case letter on the next word once.

I had always thought one should use a lower case letter following a colon: it is no period after all, and so should not be accorded the dignity of one.  But apparently there are at least two rules on use of a capital letter following a colon.  The Times author's inconsistent use isn't one of them.  And my use isn't really favored either.  I don't care though and will stick to my use: a colon is not a period, after all.

1 comment:

  1. It’s AP style, Julie. If what follows the colon is a complete sentence (or a proper noun), it’s capitalized. If not, it isn’t.

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