Punctuation in a list
Let's say I have a document with a list like this:
- aaaa
- bbbb
- cccc
- dddd
Should I put nothing, a semicolon, a full stop or what at the end of each line? This is for an academic paper. We don't have a specific style guide we're supposed to follow.
I found some information on the Internet and apparently: if there is no full stop within an item (as in 2nd and 3rd item in the list above), the item is closed by a semicolon, otherwise by a full stop (as in the 1st item in the list above).
Is this correct?
Is this applicable to a mixed (full stop within some item, no full stop within some other time) list?
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/15931. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
2 answers
To me, there are two options:
1. Your list is a list
The following fruits are healthy:
- apples
- bananas
- cherrys
I love to eat them.
Lists don't have punctuation. Even if each list item is a full sentence, you don't need to put a full stop after it (unless it is a quote).
What you need to remember:
- Sleep well
- Eat well
- Love your parents
If your list lists sentences, list them with the punctuation:
"Come home." But Joan only shook her head. (from John Jake, The Boring Book)These are my favourite sentences from John Jake's Boring Book:
- "Come home."
- But Joan only shook her head.
Both list items are understood to be quotes from a text, that is, the first sentence was written with quotation marks in the original.
2. Your list is a sentence styled as a list
I love to eat
- oranges,
- bananas, and
- apples,
because they are healthy.
Sentences have punctuation.
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/15935. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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This is a stylistic choice. I would never use a comma or semicolon at the end of a list item. I would use a period/full stop only if the item is a full sentence. To wit:
Star Trek is known for breaking new ground on television in several ways:
• Kirk and Uhura's kiss in "Plato's Stepchildren" was the first interracial kiss on broadcast TV.
• Chekov (a Russian) and Uhura (a black woman) as bridge officers
• An alien as the first officer (and in the pilot, a woman as the first officer)
• In later series, black and female captains, and a Klingon bridge officer
• Apocryphally, Lt. Malcolm Reed was intended to be gay, which would have made all the security officers contravene the hulking testosterone-soaked bruiser stereotype (Yar, a wasp-waisted woman; Worf, the oddly subdued Klingon; Odo, the thoughtful shapeshifter; Tuvok, a Vulcan; and Reed, a slender gay man).
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