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Subject:RE: punctuating the end of bullet points From:"Nuckols, Kenneth M" <Kenneth -dot- Nuckols -at- mybrighthouse -dot- com> To:"Rob Domaschuk" <rdomaschuk -at- printable -dot- com>, <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Thu, 4 May 2006 07:43:27 -0400
Rob Damashuk said...
>
> If you don't want a stark contrast between the two lists, you can end
the
> fragmented list with a comma and include "and/or" for the second-last
> item. For example:
>
> You should have the following items in your first aid kit:
> * first item,
> * second item,
> * third item, and
> * fourth item.
>
>
> Choose one of the following:
> * first item,
> * second item,
> * third item, or
> * fourth item.
>
This is the way I remember learning to punctuate bullets in school. I
also remember some suggestion (can't remember if it was pitched as a
strict "rule" or just a good idea) that items in a bullet list should be
short phrases.
We've probably all seen bad examples (online or in print) where bullets
are used to set off whole paragraphs of information. My preference is to
use bullets to set off list items. Those list items should single words
or short phrases, as above, but if there's no way to avoid independent
clauses, then I would echo the others who recommend that the structure
and punctuation of each item should be consistent.
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