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They do not hesitate in bending the truth however they see fit to their cause. At times they are rigorous and precise; at times they just play dumb.

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They do not hesitate in bending the truth however they see fit to their cause: At times they are rigorous and precise; at times they just play dumb.

  1. Am I correct that both the above sentences are acceptable, and the choice boils down to preference?

  2. Preference aside, what arguments can be put forward to choose one over another? (For example one can argue that if separate sentences make complete sense it should be preferable because long sentences are harder to read, etc.)

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    The colon "leads on". A period signals the end of one thought. In the given instance, there appears to be no case for a colon. It's nothing to do with preference either.
    – Kris
    Commented Jun 18, 2018 at 9:01
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    'Bending the truth' and 'playing dumb' do not seem to overlap to any significant degree, and '[being] rigorous and precise' is totally disjoint. I'd vastly prefer 'At times they are rigorous and precise. But they do not hesitate in bending the truth however they see fit to support their cause, and at times they just play dumb.'
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Jun 18, 2018 at 9:22
  • "...however they see fit to their cause", or "However fit they see it to their cause..." ? I find a little problem with the first one. As for full stop or semicolon, the later seems appropriate because of nearness to the sense conveyed.
    – Ram Pillai
    Commented Nov 10, 2020 at 12:33

2 Answers 2

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An actual verb is probably more comprehensible to the reader than a gerund or participle:

"They do not hesitate to bend the truth to their cause, however they see fit: At times they are rigorous and precise; at times they just play dumb."

I would prefer a colon here to help indicate that the subsequent phrases (linked by the semicolon) are both dependent on—and subordinate to—the initial phrase.

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    You don't see the use of both colon and semicolon in the same sentence as clumsy?
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Mar 15, 2020 at 11:07
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Eventually it is a matter of preference. In your example I would prefer the second version (with the colon), as the two sentences are logically linked.

The first sentence establishes a behaviour (bending the truth), and the second then provides examples for this (being rigorous/playing dumb). Using the colon makes this relationship more explicit. Using a full stop here would signal that the two are not necessarily linked.

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  • I would appreciate if someone voting down an answer could explain what they don't like about it, so that I might be able to improve it...
    – Oliver Mason
    Commented Jun 18, 2018 at 9:14
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    Being rigorous is not an illustration of truth-bending, but a concessive in this situation: one could use 'Yes,' before it. I consider that this makes the colon inappropriate. In fact, I think there are three largely separate points in OP's statement, and I'd rephrase. / I notice you didn't ask why the upvoter (whose vote prompted my adjustment) thought your answer was accurate.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Commented Jun 18, 2018 at 9:14
  • @EdwinAshworth True. But you could see "truth-bending" as describing their behaviour, more akin to 'deceptive'.
    – Oliver Mason
    Commented Jun 18, 2018 at 9:16
  • Why has my upvote been removed?
    – blackened
    Commented Jun 18, 2018 at 9:26
  • @blackened Someone else downvoted it, so it's +1/-1 = 0
    – Oliver Mason
    Commented Jun 18, 2018 at 9:46

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