2 Bulleted and numbered lists
Lists help readers to find the most important points within a longer stretch of text.
In this way, they help you to present complex information in a more digestible and
memorable format. To be memorable, they should be short and to the point. Try to
avoid bulleted lists for long sentences.
Modern word processing programs provide many options for bullets, e.g. I O ♦ ○
These allow the writer considerable creativity in the design of documents. However,
it is preferable to use a simple bullet point that is easy to read, i.e. •
Bulleted items do not usually end with a full stop unless they are complete sentences.
When writing a bulleted list with phrases, put a full stop after the last item in the list.
The sentence introducing your bulleted list should start with a colon (;)
e.g. The following documents are needed to complete your application:
Use numbered lists when you are working with instructions to be done in sequence,
and the numbers suggest an order. This also applies when you want your reader to
refer to specific items by number. If numbers are not essential and the list can be
re—ordered without losing its meaning, use bullets.