Pimp my English | Looking at lists again

By Anna Malczyk

Punctuation
Lists can either be simple lists of single words or sentence fragments, or they can be lists of sentences. In both cases, the first letter of each point must always be capital.

In single-item or sentence fragment lists, don’t include any punctuation after any of the bullet points. Introduce the list with a colon (:) or put it after a completed sentence. For example:

Every GetSmarter course module includes:
•    Notes
•    A quiz
•    A discussion forum

In lists of sentences, each individual sentence is punctuated as a normal sentence would be (which means an initial capital letter and a full stop, question mark or other ending punctuation). For example:
Here is some more info on the course:
•    The cost of the course is R6,000.
•    Payments can be made by credit card and EFT.
•    The first payment must be made by 20 July 2011.

Style
The most important style rule for lists is to be consistent. Try to make sure every bullet point is similar to every single one. For example, if most points are questions, try to make the others questions too. Never mix sentence fragments and full sentences in lists – rewrite so that only one style is used.
Use numbering for lists of processes, steps or when the introductory sentence indicates that you are enumerating a specific number of items.

This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution license.