Scott:

From the Wikipedia
entry<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colon_%28punctuation%29>on colons:

Some modern American style guides, including those published by the
Associated Press and the Modern Language Association, prescribe
capitalization where the colon is followed by an independent clause (i.e. a
complete sentence). However, *The Chicago Manual of Style* requires
capitalization only when the colon introduces two or more complete
sentences.

Here's another link
<http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/marks/colon.htm>to a
discussion of punctuation following colons.

Dick

On Wed, Oct 6, 2010 at 7:43 AM, Scott <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

>  Have the rules changed on me?  The following is a sentence from a
>
> native speaker of American English who is on a graduate fellowship
>
> or visiting professorship—I forget which—with a Flemish university.
>
> (I had considered myself an expert in punctuation until now).
>
>
>
> “But one does capitalize the initial letter of the first word in a
>
> *sentence* following a colon, as then the colon is functioning as a
>
> terminal mark of punctuation, and hence the capitalization is a useful
>
> signal to the reader that it is being used as such and what follows is
>
> a complete sentence and not a list of clauses.”
>
>
>
>
>
> Scott Catledge
>
>
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