Colon followed by capital letter

[jack]

The traditional English grammar rule is that a colon introduces a phrase (?) which may or may not would a grammatical sentence on its own, but is considered part of the same sentence as before the colon[1].

However, if the part after the colon could be a full sentence, every so often it seems more natural to treat it as if it was, with an initial capital letter. And I'm sure I've seen this every so often. I've not quite identified what the circumstances are when I prefer this, just that sometimes that's what my instinct is.

My question is, is this still non-standard? And do you think there's any benefit in using it?

[1] Or a list.

Comments

[sunflowerinrain]

I find the capital uncomfortable: in this example the colon is a substitution for "that" or even "this: that" or "this, that", so the expansion would be "And the lesson is that You should never do what Harry did: run with scissors and trip up."

"I think an important lesson is that If you're trying to sell something, TELL PEOPLE WHAT IT IS!"

um.