Punctuating Bulleted Lists #FridayReflections

What do you do when you have to share complicated information? Use Bulleted lists. They  are a great way of breaking down  information into bite-sized bits.

Punctuating Bulleted Lists

There are different ways to punctuate lists. Here are the most common ways of punctuating them  as suggested by The Plain English Campaign.

A list in which each point is a complete sentence

The Principal made three comments about the new policy for teachers.

• All teachers had to attend the in-service training.
• Regular reviews of teachers’ performance would commence in December.
• All requests for study leave must be approved by the School Board.

A list which is a continuous sentence

If you want to keep your office tidy, please remember to:
put your rubbish in the bin;
clean up after you make the tea; and
take your food out of the fridge.

A list of very short points

Any good office should have:
a kettle
a teapot
a microwave, and
a fridge.

Or

Any good office should have the following.
A kettle
A teapot
A microwave
A fridge

The Associated Press Stylebook (AP) recommends

“use dashes, not bullets, for lists in news stories that follow a colon. After each dash, capitalize the first letter and use periods at the end of each section.”

These are letters and types of service most common in nationwide transmissions:
– Spot DataStream news.
– AP Basic service.
– Most advances.
– Weekly Features service.
– Business and financial DataStream news.
– Limited DataStream news.

The Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications (MMSTP) recommends

“Introduce a list with a sentence or fragment ending with a colon. Begin each entry in a bulleted or numbered list with a capital. Use complete sentences. Use parallel construction. Use a period after each entry.”

The report should include:

• Text
• Tables
• Diagrams
• Pictures

The word processor can:

• Create reports and fliers.
• Compose letters.
• Make data tables.
• Perform file merges.

To shutdown your computer:

1. Close all windows.
2. Quit all open applications.
3. Log out of your profile.
4. Shutdown (Start menu).

 

Whatever style you decide to use, be consistent within an article, post or a report.

You can find more information about bulleted lists in this post:

Best Practices for Bullet Points

Which style do you prefer?

#FridayReflections

If you are new to Friday Reflections, here’s what it’s about. It’s the end of the week, you’re probably exhausted with work, and all you want to do is sit back, put your feet up, sip on some fancy cocktail or wine, and write away. Sanch and Write Tribe give you writing prompts and all you have to do is choose any one of those prompts to blog about and link up between Friday and Monday. After you link up, be sure to spread the love by visiting other bloggers who have linked up too.

Feel free to add our Friday Reflections badge to your post or sidebar! Follow us on Twitter @FridayReflect and join our Facebook Group. Share your post on social media with the hashtag #FridayReflections.

We have two featured writers for last week: Esha, for her inspiring tale on not giving up and Ankita for staying true to herself.

 

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The prompts for this week:
1. Tolerance: Do you believe you are tolerant or not? Write a post, or share a story depicting it
2. Are you someone who is always on time, running late or early? Does it even matter?
3. Write about something you learned the hard way
4. “It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche. Use this quote in a post or as an inspiration for one.
5. Picture Prompt (courtesy Living my Imperfect Life)