Bulleted lists

Subject: Bulleted lists
From: Janice Gelb <janiceg -at- MARVIN -dot- ENG -dot- SUN -dot- COM>
Date: Mon, 18 Aug 1997 12:36:12 -0700

Ron Rhodes writes:
>
> Ira Jacobson writes,
>
> <<<<<_I_ would use a colon. I also at times follow each bulleted item
> with a
> semi-colon, and the last with a period. Thus, the list is in essence a
> complete grammatical sentence.
>
>[snip]
>
> I think, in general, that a bulleted list should be treated like it's a
> continuation of the sentence before. If not, each bulleted item should
> be a complete sentence.

I disagree here -- we've given up on trying to punctuate bulleted
lists like continuations of sentences. We don't think that readers
read them as such and find the punctuation more distracting than
otherwise.

We only put a period at the end of a list item if the item
is itself a full sentence. Otherwise, we initial cap each
item in the list and have no punctuation at the end of the
items.

Let the flames begin!

-- Janice

P.S. OTOH, we do not permit the use of "they" for a singular :->

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