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Subject:RE: leading into a list From:Michael Strickland <Mstrickland -at- entriq -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 2 Sep 2004 14:09:32 -0700
Should always end in a colon, whether the list items complete the sentence
or not (better form to make the introductory sentence a complete sentence,
rather than completing a sentence with the list items.
Also, list items should always end in a period if they complete a sentence,
and in most other cases as well (unless, for example, they consist of only a
couple of words).
[SOURCE: MSTP 3rd. Ed.]
In any case, yes, be consistent, however you choose to do it.
-----Original Message-----
From: TechComm Dood [mailto:techcommdood -at- gmail -dot- com]
Sent: Thursday, September 02, 2004 2:03 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: leading into a list
Posting for a friend who's having trouble posting...
<<<
Should the sentence introducing a list of steps end in a colon?
Or, should it have no ending punctuation if it is not a complete sentence?
E.g., "To install the widget
1. Do this.
2. Do that.
3. Do t'other"
>>>
My personal opinion is that it really doesn't matter as long as you're
uniformly consistent throughout all your documentation.
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