Punctuating the end of bullet points?

[Chinell, David F (GE Indust, Security)]

Good advice from all. Here's another approach. Our style is:

* Capitalize the first word of each list item
* Items with a single fragment or sentence have no terminating punctuation
* Each fragment or sentence in items with multiple fragments or sentences has a period

When I say "period" I mean the appropriate terminating punctuation. It's just simpler to say "period." The idea is that terminating punctuation is only used to "separate" multiple fragments or sentences in an item.

It's probably far better to rewrite the items to avoid problems, but that's not always possible. We adopted this rule as it's easy for writers to remember, easy for editors to check, and it provides a degree of consistency that can be observed (not readily, but it is possible).

Examples...

You should have the following items in your first aid kit:

* First item
* Second item
* Third item
* Fourth item
 
Choose one of the following:

* First item
* Second item. The one with options.
* Third item
* Fourth item. Use option two only.

Bear