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Subject:Re: Bullets (#116525) From:wburns -at- MICRON -dot- COM Date:Mon, 6 Jan 1997 14:43:45 MST
Lisa writes:
>
>This may be an easy question for others to answer, but my colleague and
>I have a disagreement regarding bullets.
>
>If you are using bullets to list instructions (in complete sentences)
>should you put a period at the end of those bulleted sentences?
>
We end independent clauses with periods when the clauses serve as vertical
list items. I've heard some online documentation designers suggest minimizing
end punctuation to avoid distractions, but I'm not convinced that a period at
the end of a sentence is all that distracting.
I have seen some examples of list items punctuated like serial lists (that is, a
comma after the first and intermediate items and a period following the last
item). With noun phrases, I find this rendundant because the white space in a
vertical list supplies enough visual separation. With independent clauses, it
simply strikes me as odd (although it's often done with compound sentences with
more than two clauses).
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