I have been advised that I should capitalise ‘keep’ after the colon in this. I feel this may be US convention vs U.K. The problem with hiding is... they keep looking for you. Danny felt safe tucked away in the little Welsh seaside town. He just wanted to fish, drink the odd beer, and maybe get laid now and then. But a girl, Facebook and a lost camera card collide and drag him back out into the open. He needs to choose: keep running, and leave the girl to the mercy of Ralph Teller, the gangster who’s hunting him. Or head down to London and end this thing.
I'm assuming you mean the second instance of 'keep' in your post. I think it's optional to capitalize keep in this instance, but I think you should not have the period between 'him' and 'or'. Anyone want to comment?
I've never heard of capitalizing after a colon unless it's a proper noun. The rules on some things seem to change in the written format, and for the most part it is typically simpler to go with the one that you are most familiar.
The same thing struck me. It should be a single sentence, comma instead of a period. On the use of capitalization after a colon, I have no idea. Let me consult the Gregg Reference Manual on that. Be back in a jif!
Ok, I give up. There are many many pages of rules concerning colons, and they all seem to interact with each other in very complicated ways. My brain hurts after just looking at a couple of examples and trying to relate them to this particular problem. If it helps, here's a PDF I found about colon usage: Semicolons—colons PDF The one that seems to relate to this problem directly is at the bottom of the list, about following a complete sentence with a colon and then another clause. They capitalized the end clause, because the colon basically took the place of a period. I think this is what's being referred to in your example @Francis de Aguilar
Personally I think I would. Either a period or an em-dash. Issues like these are the main reason I try to avoid colons and semicolons etc, I just don't understand the rules for their use. Plus to me they seem more at home in either Victorian fiction or business/technical writing. I also noticed there's a shift from past to present tense in your example. It seems to be for a cover letter (or query, whatever they're called)? If so I would keep it all present tense.
It depends on how your sentences are used. Basically, the colon can go within the sentence, and you get lowercase; or it can appear between sentences, and you get a capital. These are from the Chicago Manual. 6.61 Use of the colon. blah blah blah (and then some examples) The watch came with a choice of three bands: stainless steel, plastic, or leather. They even relied on a chronological analogy: just as the Year II had overshadowed 1789, so the October Revolution had eclipsed that of February. Yolanda faced a conundrum: She could finish the soup, pretending not to care that what she had thought until a moment ago was a vegetable broth was in fact made from chicken. She could feign satiety and thank the host for a good meal. Or she could use this opportunity to assert her preference for a vegan diet. 6.63 Lowercase or capital letter after a colon. When a colon is used within a sentence, as in the first two examples in 6.61, the first word following the colon is lowercased unless it is a proper noun. When a colon introduces two or more sentences (as in the third example in 6.61) or when it introduces speech in dialogue or a quotation or question (see 6.65), the first word following it is capitalized.
It does depend a little on the style of english, and the style you're writing for. Your publisher will clarify that for you in their submission specs. As you've constructed the sentence, you would not capitalize. The colon isn't followed by a proper noun, and your list is a single sentence. You could also use an em dash. I like the second version better. Sounds better to the ear. He needs to choose--keep running, and leave the girl to the mercy of Ralph Teller, the gangster who’s hunting him, or head down to London and end this thing. or He needs to choose: keep running, and leave the girl to the mercy of Ralph Teller--the gangster who’s hunting him--or head down to London and end this thing.
To type an em-dash on a Microsoft keyboard hold down the Alt key and, while holding it, type 0151 on the number pad on the right side of the keyboard. It needs to be the number pad, not the row of numbers across the top. I thought there was no way I was going to memorize this random combination of numbers, but it's actually nicely set up as a geometric pattern. Starting from the base of the big 0 key at the bottom it moves up to the 1 and then diagonally to the 5, which is adjacent, then back down to the one again. In a sense it's like an L shape—the movement pattern for a Knight in chess. Do it a few times and muscle memory will take over (at least if you use it as frequently as I do, but then I'm a recovering em-dash addict).
In Word, I've just been using "insert symbol." But—I'll—be—darned—if—this—don't—work—a—lot—faster. Thanks!
My two scents: you don't need to capitalize after colon. You can look at books by famous authors. They don't capitalize after colon.
If you type two hyphens after a word, without a space between them or the word, and then type the next word (again without spacing) Word will automatically convert that to an em-dash.
I think you can have three sentences or one there, but not two. As others have said, you can make it one sentence with the colon: He needs to choose: keep running and leave the girl to the mercy of Ralph Teller, the gangster who’s hunting him, or head down to London and end this thing. Or you can make three sentences out of it: He needs to choose. Keep running and leave the girl to the mercy of Ralph Telle, the gangster who’s hunting him? Or head down to London and end this thing? I felt like I needed to add question marks to make that one work. Also, I removed the comma after "keep running" in both cases. It's not needed and confuses the grammar.
Personally I would simplify it by removing the name of the gangster and just say 'Keep running and leave the girl to the mercy of Ralph Teller, the gangster who’s hunting him.' It's already fairly complex and a little clause like that requiring its own comma to set it off confuses the larger structure. Always strive for clarity.
My first instinct was to capitalize. However, after reading this, it makes more sense to leave it lower-case because of the option thereafter not being a complete thought (example 2 vs example 3). Although, I would restructure this sentence for clarity... Here's how my brain wrote the thought: He needs to choose: keep running and leave the girl to the mercy of Ralph Teller, the gangster who’s hunting him, or head down to London and end this thing. Admittedly it loses impact on the concept of "Ending this thing." But I think it may read clearer. Thoughts?
Personally, I feel - without justification, mind - that the third Chicago example is simply bad writing. With that complex structure, it’s hard to tell what and where the choices are. Better to just write the sentences differently, so it is clearer, just leave off the colon.
As has been mentioned, just type two hyphens and Word automatically converts that to an em-dash. Another keyboard shortcut that's built into Word is CTRL+ALT+[minus on the numeric keypad] for an em-dash and just CTRL+[minus] for an en-dash.
I do sometimes use Word, but this trick works in any application, for instance here on the message board. On a Mac keyboard I believe the trick is Command+Minus. Or is it Control+Minus? Not sure, it's been a while since my Mac died.
I've been using this Typora program exclusively lately. I set the margins thin so it has the proper width of a paperback. It's a pretty simple editor. I do like that they finally added dash conversion. It's so easy. 2 hyphens turn into an en dash. 3 hyphens turn into an em dash. I wish every word processor would do that so easily. Almost makes me want to put dashes everywhere! haha
