Re: inifinitive phrases/colons & lists

Subject: Re: inifinitive phrases/colons & lists
From: Marilynne Smith <marilyns -at- qualcomm -dot- com>
To: "Krezel, Lillian" <Lillian -dot- Krezel -at- midata-ebs -dot- com>, "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2000 18:55:17 -0700

Chicago Manual of Style, 14th edition, 5.100 states:

"A colon should not be used to introduce a list that is the complement or object of an element in the introductory statement:
Madame Mirceau had taken care to (1) make facsimiles of all the documents, (2) deliver them to the foreign minister's office, and (3) leave the country."

Note that there is no colon after the word "to" that introduces the list. An older way of stating this was not to place a colon between a verb and its object or a preposition and its object.

I know this rule is broken many times, but I respect the advice of Chicago so much that I personally will rewrite a sentence rather than to break this rule.

Marilynne

At 01:42 PM 6/14/00, Krezel, Lillian wrote:

Paula,

: does not necessarily mean "Here comes a bulleted list." The colon is fine
before any long series.
I believe Strunk and White address this very point in "Elements of Style"
or maybe it was Sheridan Baker . . .

In any case, I'd set off the phrase "Do you want your staff to:" with
a bold font, perhaps a different font face from the rest of the brochure.

Lili

~!~ ~!~ ~!~ ~!~ ~!~ ~!~ ~!~
Marilynne Smith
Sr. Technical Writer
QUALCOMM
marilyns -at- qualcomm -dot- com
(858) 651-6664
AE-203B
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