No Capitalization After a Dash
The Dash
Rulebase Summary
Do not capitalize the first word after a dash unless it is a word that is always capitalized (such as a proper noun or 'I'). The dash is a mid-sentence punctuation mark, not a sentence-ending one.
Examples
A. I went to the office -- The door was locked.
A. I went to the office -- the door was locked.
No capital after a dash — still one sentence.
A. I was on my way to -- The store was closed by then.
A. I was on my way to -- the store was closed by then.
No capital after a dash unless the word is always capitalized.
Transcript Notes
In reporting, the dash is formatted as 'space hyphen hyphen space' — two hyphens with a space on each side. A complete sentence after a dash is still not capitalized. There is no limit on the number of dashes a speaker can produce — there is no such thing as 'there are too many dashes, I need to use a different mark of punctuation.'
Style Guide References (1)
BGGP