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I know that a variant of this question has been asked before, and recalled what my Creative writing teacher told me about when to use capitalization after a colon, by using the following three example sentences for colon usage.

In a complete sentence, the capital case is optional. 1. This is what I think of cats: They steal your breath.

In the following two examples, the capitalization is not optional to change, therefore the words after the colon must remain lowercase.

  1. This is what I think of cats: nothing.

  2. This is what I think of cats: scary, tiresome, snooty.

In other words, do the above examples properly illustrate proper colon and capitalization usage for American English, regardless of essay style, and usage for non-essay papers?

Toyu_Frey
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  • Not really. Many publishers forbid a capital letter after the colon unless you would use it after a mere comma. – tchrist Apr 15 '19 at 22:13
  • It's completely a matter of style. Chicago says to use a lowercase unless what follows the colon is a proper noun or a question—in which case use a capital. Some people use a capital letter after, others don't. In your quote (What is the source?), it makes no sense to say that one is optional while the other two are not. – Jason Bassford Apr 16 '19 at 18:37
  • @JasonBassford The source would be what I've written down verbatim from my University's Creative Writing I and II teacher from last Fall's semester. I can try sending her a email asking for the sources that she used to come to the conclusion that I wrote in my Journal during her class, but it might take some time. And I believe that the "optional" part is a reference to the fact that, as you said, "some people use a capital letter after, others don't.". – Toyu_Frey Apr 17 '19 at 17:45

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