Answer: capitalization with colons and semicolons

[green-grrl.livejournal.com]

sosaith asks, "Following a colon or semicolon, is the first letter capitalized like the start of a new sentence?"

For the use of semicolons and colons in general, I will refer you back to skroberts' Grammar 101 post on punctuation. The tricky bit is whether to capitalize or not.

Well, it's not actually all tricky. In all cases, always capitalize if you are starting with a word that's capitalized: a proper noun or acronym.

Ziva and McGee covered the back of the building; Tony and Gibbs stormed the front.

It was a regular alphabet soup of a meeting: CIA, FBI, NSA, and NCIS.

Semicolons:

Other than the general rule above, do not capitalize after a semicolon.

Down in the lab, McGee and Abby were attacking the system from two different angles; the hacker didn't stand a chance.

Even though "the hacker didn't stand a chance" is an independent clause (a complete sentence), using a semicolon makes it a part of the same sentence starting with "Down."

Colons:

Lowercase. Colons are not always so simple; I'll start off with the easy ones. When the text following the colon is a list of words or phrases that are not independent clauses, do not capitalize.

The body showed all the signs of a professional hit: three rounds clustered at the heart, powder burns around a close-range shot to the head, and the hands removed to prevent easy identification.

Capital. When the text following a colon is the first in a list of complete sentences, do capitalize.

Ziva was pretty sure she knew most of Gibbs's rules by now: Never be unreachable. Never take anything for granted. Never say you're sorry. Always carry a knife.... Well, if she thought long enough she'd be able to name them all.

Capitalize a quotation following a colon.

"I love Persian people!" Tony protested. "Omar Khayyam is one of my heroes: 'A jug of wine, a loaf of bread, and thou.' Classic."

When the text preceding the colon is only a short introduction and the main text follows, capitalize.

Abby was bored, bored, bored, while waiting for the database to find a match for the fingerprint, and decided the rest of the denizens of her lab were, too.
Major Mass: If only there was some substance that needed identifying.
Captain Comparison: A hair. Some fibers!
Major Mass: I can't believe the scene was so pristine that there's nothing for us to do.
Abby: I know, guys.
Bert: [farts]

Note to all NCIS DC personnel: Mandatory sexual harassment training, Friday, 900-1100 hours, top floor conference room.

Either. It's only when there are two independent clauses joined by a colon that different style guides disagree.

There was only one possible conclusion: the clerk hadn't drowned after all.

There was only one possible conclusion: The clerk hadn't drowned after all.

The Chicago Manual of Style says the second clause begins with a lowercase letter unless the first clause is introducing two or more complete sentences, or if the second clause is a quotation or dialogue. The APA Publication Manual says to always capitalize an independent clause following a colon.

If you are required to follow a particular stylebook in your writing, look up the rule it recommends. Otherwise, pick the style you prefer and use it consistently.

Comments

[perdiccas.livejournal.com]

Thanks for this!

[green-grrl.livejournal.com]

You are welcome!

[skroberts]

Looks good!

[green-grrl.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

[unfeathered]

Oooh, interesting. I was seriously not aware that you could capitalise after a colon if it was a list of sentences and I always thought it looked weird without a capital there! Thank you! :-)

[green-grrl.livejournal.com]

Fortunately grammar rules usually have some sort of internal logic. (Too bad it's not always!) In this case, yup, go with what makes sense!

[elusive-life-77.livejournal.com]

If my highschool and college English courses had been taught as clearly as you explain I would have aced them easily.

[green-grrl.livejournal.com]

That's why we're here, ma'am. *tips hat*

:-)

[lmichelle599.livejournal.com]

Thanks. :)

[green-grrl.livejournal.com]

You're welcome!