Most of these colon uses didn't bother me on first reading.  But as I
reviewed the group, I realized the Education Week citation was different
than the others--in that the colon interrupted the clauses which began
the sentence: but then the sentence continued to complete the initial
clause.  This use seems to me confusing and problematic, in that the
punctuation sends conflicting signals.  My usual advice to students is
that once they use the colon, they have ended their independent clause
or sentence and can not go back to it.  Or put another way, there is no
"reverse colon" or "end colon."  Dashes and parentheses and bracket
provide such a structure but not colons.

Jon Price

Christine Gray wrote:

>Maybe I'm one of the few, but I still teach the colon after an independent
>clause, the use of the subjunctive mood, and the difference between that and
>which!!!!!!!!!!!
>
>Am I alone in holding these "truths"?
>
>Christine Gray in Baltimore
>
>--
>No trees were harmed in the transmission of this message.
>
>However, a significant number of electrons were temporarily inconvenienced.
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar
>[mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Stahlke, Herbert F.W.
>Sent: Monday, April 26, 2004 2:01 PM
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: Re: Dead rules
>
>Just like split infinitives, final prepositions, and initial "and" and
>"but", the rule prohibiting clause internal colon before a list is
>widely and properly ignored.  I still don't like them and I tend to
>avoid them, but that's personal taste.  However, your examples of
>fragments followed by colon don't strike me as the same thing.  These
>fragments function as full clauses, so the question still remains as to
>when the colon should be used in cases like the Reynolds Price and the
>Education Week (not one of my personal models of style).
>
>Has any publication sanctioned clause internal colon, and, if so, under
>what conditions?  If this hasn't happened yet, maybe we ought to work on
>it.
>
>Herb
>
>
>Here are a few other contemporary examples:
>
>The OED says that religion is: Belief in, reverence for, and desire to
>please, a divine ruling power.  (Reynolds Price)
>
>For example, if the numbers read aloud were: 1. 2. 3. and 4, the answers
>would be 3, 5, and 7.  (Education Week)
>
>Fragments followed by colons are also not uncommon:
>
>To sum up: the classical words adopted sine the Renaissance have
>enriched the
>English language very greatly . . . .   (Otto Jespersen)
>
>Well-known fact: In neither K-12 nor college English are systematic SWE
>grammar and usage much taught anymore.  (David Foster Wallace)
>
>I do wonder for how long the rule has been dying.  The following is from
>Strunk and White's Elements of Style:
>
>". . . it is exciting to reread . . . of this noble theme.  It goes:
>"Vigorous writing is concise . . . ."
>
>Ed Schuster
>
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>
>

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