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Pedants' corner

Bullet points and full stops...

6 replies

PavlovtheCat · 09/12/2012 14:43

I am editing some work that is largely made up of bullet points.

Do the end of each sentence/several sentences of bullet points require a full stop?

For example:

*I like cheese, wine and mince pies
*

or

*I like cheese, wine and mince pies.

OP posts:
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incogneetow · 09/12/2012 14:47

It doesn't matter, but it must be consistent.
Generally I prefer the cleaner look of no full stops, unless the items in the bulleted list are very long.

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FellatioNelson · 09/12/2012 14:48

I would completely agree with incog

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PavlovtheCat · 09/12/2012 14:56

incog ah, see that is what I thought too! I also agree I prefer the cleaner look, but, the bullets consist of some short simple sentences and some longer sections of information, which don't really look right without full stops.

So, I am guessing I need to put them in throughout, yes?

OP posts:
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ElphabaTheGreen · 10/12/2012 19:13

I normally use a good old 'if in doubt' semicolon at the end of each item or sentence in a bulleted list.

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Chewbecca · 12/12/2012 22:14

I think you can only use full stops if they are complete sentences with capital letters.
I believe it's also ok to use no full stops at all whether a complete sentence or not so that's the safe option & personally I prefer it presentation-wise too.

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cardibach · 23/12/2012 19:44

I am an English teacher and a pedant (although a very poor typist, so forgive any typos). I was emailed by the Head to tell me that I had forgotten to put full stops at the end of the bullet points in my reports Confused
I emailed her back a link to show that you could use them if the bullet points were all complete sentences but that it was generally recognised that you did not, and offered to add them if she still wanted them. She replied that, yes, since some of the comments referred to punctuation I should use them Hmm
I give up.

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