Correct Punctuation of Bulleted Lists?
Posted: Fri Apr 15, 2016 10:33 am
The Programme of Study for Years 5 and 6 contains a statutory requirement that "Pupils should be taught to ... indicate grammatical and other features by ... punctuating bullet points consistently". Note that it does not say correctly, which I find curious. Is that because there are no rules?
I've attempted to locate some official guidance on what the 'correct' way to punctuating bullet points would be, but have found none.
Furthermore, http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/words/bullet-points" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; says, "There are no fixed rules about how to use them, but here are some guidelines". The same site goes onto provide the following guidelines (amongst others):
Consider the sentence, "My favourite flavours of ice-cream are strawberry, chocolate and vanilla." It would be incorrect to place a colon after the word "are" in this sentence as a colon must be preceded by an independent clause. However, if I re-arranged this sentence into a bulleted list I'm required to include the colon, correct?
Our DD has started to use colons to separate clauses in a sentence, and I know it's only a matter of time before she starts wanting to use them to introduce bulleted lists. I want to be able to explain the rules when she asks. Right now, I can't.
I've attempted to locate some official guidance on what the 'correct' way to punctuating bullet points would be, but have found none.
Furthermore, http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/words/bullet-points" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false; says, "There are no fixed rules about how to use them, but here are some guidelines". The same site goes onto provide the following guidelines (amongst others):
Is there an official set of bullet point rules, which would be used to assess whether children have met this requirement?1. The text introducing the list of bullet points should end with a colon.
2. If the text that follows the bullet point is not a proper sentence, it doesn’t need to begin with a capital letter and it shouldn’t end with a full stop.
3. If the text following the bullet point IS a complete sentence, it should begin with a capital letter. A full stop at the end is technically required but is not absolutely essential.
Consider the sentence, "My favourite flavours of ice-cream are strawberry, chocolate and vanilla." It would be incorrect to place a colon after the word "are" in this sentence as a colon must be preceded by an independent clause. However, if I re-arranged this sentence into a bulleted list I'm required to include the colon, correct?
Is the above punctuated correctly? Or should I omit the comma, the "and" and the full-stop?My favourite flavours of ice-cream are:
• strawberry,
• chocolate and
• vanilla.
The marking scheme for the new KS2 tests doesn't talk about bullets (as there were no questions on bullets), but does have examples of bulleted lists with the text. Based on what they do, the above should contain a final full-stop.My favourite flavours of ice-cream are:
• strawberry
• chocolate
• vanilla
Also, they don't always introduce a bulleted list with a colon.Award 1 mark for a suitable possessive pronoun:
• mine
• yours
• his / hers
• ours
• theirs.
Surely there should be a colon after the "e.g."? Or would that argue that this would look clumsy?Do not accept: responses using a possessive determiner and noun, e.g.
• my books
• his toys.
Our DD has started to use colons to separate clauses in a sentence, and I know it's only a matter of time before she starts wanting to use them to introduce bulleted lists. I want to be able to explain the rules when she asks. Right now, I can't.