4. After the salutatory phrase used by a speaker in addressing the chairman or the audience.
5. Many good punctuators use a dash with a colon when the colon is at the end of a paragraph. As the salutatory phrase in No. 94 is a paragraph, a dash would follow the colon. This is the style of The Riverside Press. We followed it in the first edition of this work. The combination is not pleasing to the eye, and therefore we do not now use the two marks together.
6. It cannot be denied that the use of the colon after different forms of the verb “to be,” and preceding details, is good conventional punctuation. We think it exceedingly bad punctuation; for it separates words (the verb and its predicate) that are in the closest grammatical relation, and, generally, the mark is without apparent purpose.
Our illustrative sentence is from the work of Mr. Teall, who explains that the colon is used because of the modifiers following the name of the persons:
95. Among those present were: John Brown, who made a speech; Adam Smith, with his wife and daughter; Charles Jones, etc.
We think no mark is needed after “were.” As indicated elsewhere, if the particulars are put into paragraph form, thus leaving “were” at the end of an incomplete line, a dash may be used, simply to act as a sort of leader for the eye, or as a partial filler of the blank space in the line:
95-1. Among those present were—John Brown, who made a speech....
Some good punctuators would use no mark after “were” in No. 95-1.
In No. 95 we give Mr. Teall’s punctuation, which shows a comma before “etc.” This makes “etc.” stand for a modifier of “Jones”; and this, in turn, puts three words, with their modifiers, in a series without a conjunction before the last one. Such grouping is not in the usual form of grouping, except in language where, as we believe, the proper relations are overlooked, as they seem to be here.
This apparently doubtful meaning of the comma,— that is, whether it indicates that “etc.” stands for a modifier, like the preceding ones, or for additional persons,—may be avoided by using “and” after the second semicolon, thus making “etc.” stand for a modifier of Jones, or by the use of a semicolon after “Jones,” thus making “etc.” stand for an additional group or groups.