Capital letter after colon?

Gedaechtnis

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Would it be

Blah blah blah: Blah blah blah.
or
Blah blah blah: blah blah blah.

I suspect it depends on something to do with sentences and clauses and stuff like that, but somehow none of my teachers have ever said anything! So examples would help if you know what you're talking about, since I clearly do not.

I swear this will be my only stupid grammar question ever. Thanks. :)
 

andrewhollinger

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If you use the colon to set off dialogue, then definitely capitalize.
E.g. That's when John said: "Get off my effin lawn!"

If you use the colon as an anticipatory punctuation in the middle of the sentence, I would probably capitalize.
E.g. I looked up: And there she stood. (This example from Harry Noden's Image Grammar.)

But I don't capitalize for lists if they are written as sentences.
E.g. I brought many things for the picnic: baked beans, insect repellent, hoagies.

I guess that means I capitalize for independent clauses and don't for dependent clauses.
 
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Terie

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According to The Merriam-Webster Concise Handbook for Writers:

The first word following a colon may be either lowercased or capitalized if it introduces a complete sentence. While the former is the usual styling, the latter is also quite common, especially when the sentence introduced by the colon is fairly lengthy and distinctly separate from the preceding clause. ... For the sake of consistency many authors and editors prefer to use one style or the other in all cases, regardless of sentence length. The capitalized style is more common in newspapers, but overall the lowercased styling is more frequently used.

And from The Oxford Manual of Style:

Follow [a colon] with a capital letter only if the list comprises proper names or more than one (in US English any grammatically complete) sentence.
 

Gedaechtnis

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Okay, so I take it that I can use a capital letter for independent clauses or longer sentences, and lowercase for dependent clauses/lists/short sentences.

Thanks everyone!
 

jjacobs

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Personally, I would choose one and stay consistent. Either capitalize always or never. My personal preference is never.
 

Bartholomew

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Are you writing fiction where the narrator has a strong voice? Because you can use capitalization to subtly emphasize something the POV character finds important this way.
 

dpaterso

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Stating the obvious: if the same sentence continues, lowercase does the biz.

-Derek