TJ,

The following is from Wikipedia <
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colon_%28punctuation%29>:

Use of capitalization or lower-case after a colon varies. In British
English<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_English>,
the word following the colon is in lower case unless it is a proper noun or
an acronym, or if it is normally capitalized for some other reason.
However, in American English <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_English>,
many writers capitalize the word following a colon if it begins an
independent clause (i.e., a complete sentence). This follows the guidelines
of some modern American style guides, including those published by the
Associated
Press <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Associated_Press> and the Modern
Language Association<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Modern_Language_Association>.
The Chicago Manual of
Style<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chicago_Manual_of_Style>
, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colon_%28punctuation%29#cite_note-4>however,
requires capitalization only when the colon introduces a direct
quotation or two or more complete
sentences.<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colon_%28punctuation%29#cite_note-5>

On Sun, Dec 18, 2011 at 9:37 PM, tjray <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>  I have been asked whether the first letter following a colon should be
> capitalized.  My response was
> that if the clause preceding the colon clearly introduces a multi-sentence
> response then the first letter of
> the first sentence following the colon should be capitalized.  In other
> cases, even if the words following
> the colon constitute an independent clause, the first letter need not be
> capitalized.
>
>  I'd appreciate better ways to respond to this student's question.
>
>  tj
>  ------------------------------
>
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