39e Know your options when the first word after a colon begins an independent clause.

When a group of words following a colon can stand on its own as a complete sentence, MLA recommends using lowercase for the first word (see 51a) whereas APA calls for capitalizing it (see 53a).

Clinical trials revealed problems: a high percentage of participants reported severe headaches.

Clinical trials revealed problems: A high percentage of participants reported severe headaches.

Always use lowercase for a list or an appositive that follows a colon (see 32e).

Students were divided into two groups: residents and commuters.

Exercise 39–1

Edit the following sentences to correct errors in capitalization. If a sentence is correct, write “correct” after it. Answers appear in the back of the book.

The example reads,

On our trip to the West, we visited the (strikethrough) lowercase g in grand (end strikethrough) (insert) uppercase g in Grand (end inserts) (strikethrough) lowercase c in Canyon (end strikethrough) (insert) uppercase c in Canyon (end inserts) and the (strikethrough) lowercase g in great (end strikethrough) (insert) uppercase G in Great (end inserts) (strikethrough) lowercase s in salt (end strikethrough) (insert) uppercase s in Salt (end inserts) (strikethrough) lowercase d in desert (end strikethrough) (insert) uppercase D in Desert (end inserts).

1. Assistant dean Shirin Ahmadi recommended offering more world language courses.

2. We went to the Mark Taper Forum to see a production of Angels in America.

3. Kalindi has an ambitious semester, studying differential calculus, classical hebrew, brochure design, and greek literature.

4. Lydia’s Aunt and Uncle make modular houses as beautiful as modernist works of art.

5. We amused ourselves on the long flight by discussing how Spring in Kyoto stacks up against Summer in London.