Full stops at the end of bullet points or not?

[SaveScrabulous]

Any views?
I can't decide what to do with something I'm writing.

[SnafuAtSea]

No. Bullet points are effectively a 'list' so you don't need full stops after each one.

[ChipButty]

Not.
Or should I say

• not

[roisin]

If the bullet points are sentences, you can use full-stops at the end if you want. But you must be consistent.

For longer, more bulleted paragraphs really I would have full-stops. For short lists of items, I wouldn't.

[Bewilderbeast]

I agree with Roisin

[Hassled]

I'd say no. Bullet points are rarely complete sentences.
I used to work for someone who insisted on semicolons after each bullet point and then a full stop after the last bullet point - and I can see the logic there; the semicolon is punctuating one giant sentence that is the list of bullet points, IYSWIM.

[marina]

What the others said with Roisin's proviso re each point length

[Hassled]

Or should that be semi-colon ?

[WaynettaSlob]

I put nothing after a bullet, but a fullstop after the last.

[Ellbell]

I am with Hassled here...

Introduce the list with a colon, then a semi-colon at the end of each bullet-point until the last one which ends with a full stop.

Here is an example:

• bullet-point 1;

• bullet-point 2;

• bullet-point 3;

• bullet-point 4.

[Note to self... Get a life!]

[Ellbell]

But it's correct!

at myself for (a) knowing, and (b) caring!

[Bink]

except
Ellbell
except

the penultimate one should, after the semi-colon, have an "and"

thus:

the hallmarks of a pedant are:

? a conviction as to one?s own command of the subject;
? minute attention to detail;
? zeal to correct others; and
? a very whiny voice.

[Ellbell]

I like it Bink.

I bow to your greater pedantry! (And I have just produced a 7-page list of 'minor corrections' on some poor chappie's PhD... most of them to do with things like spaces missing between p. and the page number... I am sad, sad, sad!)

[stuffitllama]

No bullet points obviate the need for commas and semi colons also no capital letters on bullet points. They're not a part of any grammatical system at all so you are effectively abandoning traditional grammar to use them.
("so to use them you are effectively abandoning traditional grammar"?)
expect correction on use of effectively asap

[Bink]

I think stuffitllama wins.
Partly because of her audacious use of "obviate"; more for her demonstration of self-correction [ooh]; but most of all for her double dashes - pure MLA stylebook. (Made me go & dig out my own, just to see if it pronounced on bullet points; but it dates from 1980, and appears to be ante-bullet point.)

Get that Llama.

[Bink]

Ellbell - I remember some dozen years ago as a callow newly qualified lawyer doing some "comments" on a document to the slightly more qualified people on the other side. My comments, I cringe to say, included things like double spaces (between words) where there should have been just one. As they marked down the comments, their eyes burnt at me.

[Wilkie]

What Roison said

[Wisteria]

Agree with Roisin as well.

[OrmIrian]

. No

Only on the last one.

[stuffitllama]

Have just come back and am most disturbed to see a discouraging move towards acceptance of semi-colons and full stops in bullet points. Beyond frightful.

Bink I can't tell whether you are being post-ironic but

What is MLA? Is it something to do with lawyers? Am not lawyer. Do they have style books?

[Bink]

Post-ironic? don't think I'm up to that ... I was being flip in order to disguise my awe of a superior being

MLA = Modern Language Association of America. It does (did? maybe it's a thing of the past) a Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations ...

[hmm. Note that - I would say - superfluous comma after the penultimate item in a list. Also the implied distinction between a "thesis" and a "dissertation". I digress]

... I started a doctorate once, & we all had to learn the Handbook's rules by heart. I have just looked: there are 27 pages on end- & foot-notes & citation conventions. But nowt upon the mighty bullet-point.

[Bink]

Ah, lawyers & style books.
The only thing we encourage is The Economist's style book, which is pragmatic & pretty good. But it does not directly help with trainees who write

Yours Faithfully

and then argue with you

[moondog]

Ooh right up my street.
Am in the throes of etiquette for my MSc at present (as you say, it's a whole new world betwen the pages of a very thick manual).

I wrestled with the thorny issue of syntax within bullet points this evening while composing snotty document to Education Authority (tearing theirs apart).

[stuffitllama]

I should think the Economist style book is the Vogue of pedantry. Trainees who argue should be made to swab the floor they are there to be TOLD!

Moondog ignore all advice to use decorative pieces of punctuation on your bullet points. They are like tinsel on a Christmas tree -- you have a nagging feeling that you ought, but when you put them on it looks over-loaded and fussy.

I rest my case.