List punctuation Copy

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In the previous topics we have seen a number of lists and between them they illustrate the end punctuation options.

Minimal punctuation

This is my preferred style. Very simple. Stem is a sentence with a full point. No other punctuation.

These are the term dates.

• • 12 January —  23 March
  • 14 April — 18 July
  • 4 September — 20 December

Partial stem

Sometimes you want the list items to complete the stem in a number of different ways. This robs you of the option to use capitals for the list items, and you wonder how many full points to include. Just the last one?

The objectives of the beginner’s editing course are:

• • to introduce proofreading techniques
  • to identify the most common mistakes
  • to give practice in marking up a set of proofs.

Full punctuation

Here, the list items retain the wording of the original sentence, and its punctuation.

The objectives of the beginner’s editing course are:

• • to introduce proofreading techniques, 
  • to identify the most common mistakes, and 
  • to give practice in marking up a set of proofs.

This is grammatically correct, but the hardest to get right. It also fails to benefit from the clarity available in the bullet style option. The easy option is to rephrase – and capitalise.

There are three objectives of the beginner’s editing course.

• • To introduce proofreading techniques
  • To identify the most common mistakes
  • To give practice in marking up a set of proofs

Notice that we are back to my preferred style! Very simple. Stem is a sentence with a full point. No other punctuation.