I've heard contradictory information on this. Do we follow a colon with a capital letter? I think I heard it's optional unless the colon introduces a set of sentences, in which case you use a capital. Any ideas on this?
hast thou googled? when it introduces a series of items, there should be no capital... for other uses and capitalization info: http://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writing/c.html
I think we covered it in another thread (this thread Post #20). It's really a matter of style (and probably optional). CMOS says no capital, unless a quotation or two or more complete sentences; AP says yes if one or more complete sentences; MLA says only if it's a rule or principle; and New York Times Style says only if the matter before the colon is an introductory element. Personally, I follow the CMOS on this one, and it agrees with Strunk and White's The Elements of Style.
Sorry. I missed that thread and I didn't do a search. My bad. I follow CMOS, too, I guess, but I was wondering if there was a preference. I guess CMOS comes as close as it gets. And, quite, frankly, it looks the "prettiest." Thanks. Yeah, I did, but as I said, I got contrary information on the subject.
No worries. I just remembered having discussed it and it wasn't too many pages into the forums. For preference ... I think we decided that at least several preferences exist and people fall into all of them. I typically go with CMOS and The Elements of Style. When there is a conflict between the two, I go with whichever I feel makes more logical sense. I usually ignore the style guides of AP, NYT, MLA, and so on for creative writing because they mainly deal with news and formal writing. I think the best thing you can do is pick one and remain consistent.
Might be. My biggest fear is that I'll use a style inconsistent with someone's house style and that will be the deciding factor of them throwing my work in the slush pile. I don't know if agents "slush" me based on a house style or if they write me back and say, "Good work, but please change the following," but it's a fear. Might be a discussion for another thread.
stop obsessing over the little stuff... if your writing quality is decent and your story is marketable, no agent or editor is gonna toss your ms because of a misused piece of punctuation or capital letter!
