posted
Should I capitalize "First" in the following sentence? And am I using the colon correctly? I had the two parts as two separate sentences, but I think that made the latter one a fragment.
quote:Still, he is ultimately the source of the darkness in the creature: First, in his ambition to uncover the secrets of life and death, and then in imagining evil in the creature before the evil existed, and ultimately, in his neglect of the creature after its creation.
quote:Still, he is ultimately the source of the darkness in the creature: first, in his ambition to uncover the secrets of life and death, then in imagining evil in the creature before the evil existed, and ultimately, in his neglect of the creature after its creation.
No capital F, however, you also need to remove the and before then to make it all proper. In a list (which this is) you only use and before the final item.
Posts: 224 | Registered: Jan 2001
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quote:Still, he is ultimately the source of the darkness in the creature: first, in his ambition to uncover the secrets of life and death; then, in imagining evil in the creature before the evil existed; and ultimately, in his neglect of the creature after its creation
You use semicolons to separate the items in the list because you are using commas within the items in the list.
Posts: 26077 | Registered: Mar 2000
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posted
Most style guides nowadays would only recommend capitalizing the word after the colon if the colon introduces more than one sentence.
Posts: 9945 | Registered: Sep 2002
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posted
Are you sure no capital F? I learned in medical transcription school that you ALWAYS capitalize after a colon, but maybe that's medical-chart protocol and not "civilian" usage.
Posts: 1006 | Registered: Jun 2006
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posted
*pokes head in* *look around* *shuffles off disappointed that there are no colon jokes in thread* Posts: 2445 | Registered: Oct 2004
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posted
I hated reading Frankenstein in high school... and college, come to think of it.
As a TA who has loads of papers to grade herself, don't capitalize the F and be very wary of using semicolons (though the suggestions here have been completely correct). And no, Libbie, normal human beings don't capitalize after a colon. Posts: 3932 | Registered: Sep 1999
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posted
I knew the semi-colon rule, I had just forgotten it. I was very happy to be reminded.
The paper is gone now, and I didn't capitalize the f. I don't think the teacher is really going to care, since content is what's really important. But I still wanted to be correct. I'm shooting for an A, and I don't want anything to stand in the way. (But I will be happy with a B...that's why I'm shooting for an A.)
Posts: 2880 | Registered: Jun 2004
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