Welcome to Writing Tip Tuesday, the Bullet Points edition. This is the ninth in a series of posts pulled from my free guide “On Not Writing Badly.” You can download the whole thing by filling out this form, or, if you’d rather not subscribe to my email list, you can simply check back here over the next several Tuesdays for a regular dose of word nerdery.
Bullet Points
Rule 1: If your bullet points are not complete sentences you do not need punctuation or capitalization.
I love three flavors of ice cream:
- chocolate
- coffee
- salted caramel
Rule 2: Do not use commas, semicolons, or “and” at the end of each line. Just let it be.
I have three dogs:
- Daisy
- Lupe
- Fart Bucket
Rule 3: If your bullet points are complete sentences, do use punctuation and capitalization.
These are the pool rules:
- Do not run.
- If you see unsafe behavior, report it to the lifeguard.
- Did you remember your towel?
- Have fun!
Rule 4: Use numbered bullet points when the order of the items is important.
How to eat ice cream:
- Get a spoon.
- Open the container.
- Dig in.
Your poor third dog.
Wasted no time in downloading the eBook. Will definitely be perusing it forthwith.
Another great book on the subject is: “Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation” by Lynne Truss. Very enjoyable read and great for grammar nerds.
Funny story, my kids actually wanted to name our dog Fart Bucket. I managed to talk them out of it, thankfully.
Would’ve loved to be witness to that conversation.
Just a note, your comment system doesn’t send an e-mail to the commenter when there is a reply. Not sure if that’s by design? I stumbled across this again by chance.
Thanks for the heads up. I’ll look into that.