Please enable JavaScript and visit again! Whether a numbered list is being used when a bullet list would be more appropriate, or vice versa, I recommend APs style guidance for end punctuation: All of these recommendations follow AP, but one clarification is needed. Important Note: The MLA Handbook from the Modern Language Association (MLA style) follows Chicago-style recommendations for ordered and unordered vertical lists. This post links directly to APA Style topics of interest that users may not even know exist on the website. Did you know that before the introduction of word processing (via word processors and computers), most publications displayed lists in either outline form or numbered lists. In general, the following capitalization rules apply across the four styles in title case: Important words in that last bullet generally refer to: Title case is the most common title capitalization for book titles, headlines, articles titles, etc. the proper name, do not capitalize. . And if so, when? Capitalization is a style choicewith sentence fragments, you can choose to start each with either upper- or lower-case letters. If you want to change your title from uppercase to title case, you can select the Title Case button above. To remove a lid from a jar that is stuck: Place the lid under hot water for ten seconds. In Not quite. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this websites owner is strictly prohibited. Complete sentences introducing ordered lists are traditionally punctuated with a colon. A: AP uses the numeral for acres, even when less than 10, as a dimension: 5 acres. She holds a B.A. Some style manuals, such as the AP Stylebook and APA Publication Manual, recommend capitalizing an independent clause after a colon. 0 Items that are complete sentences If bulleted items are complete sentences, begin each item with a capital letter and finish it with a period or other appropriate punctuation. Lower is default; upper is special. Right you are. This is another case where there are no hard rules! Thanks for the catch! x]0)} N "d/J]g<3gcyY?9Y\}xLgH*vVQ8e[!}mg%O*~OqoEhe9k=~o^p{?~7?ZOu6ImR)Gow=\JrP Required fields are marked *. Bonus: We have some great shortcuts to make your life easier. If the bulleted text is a whole sentence, uppercase the initial letter of the first word and use a period to conclude the paragraph (see "Lists, Part 5: Bulleted Lists" in the APA Style Blog . If the elements are complex, uses commas for all. Prepositions that contain five letters or more. If that sounds like a lot to remember, think of it this way instead: as a general rule of thumb, any word that's three letters or less should not be capitalized. Q: Is there a standard AP style for bulleted areas of text? This is ultimately a matter of stylistic preference. Use periods, not semicolons, at the end of each section or a phrase. This is clear, but AP doesnt fully address when to omit a period at the end of each bullet. A: In a simple series, AP doesn't use a comma before the last item. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); You can also upload a document to get an instant quote. 59 0 obj <>stream Now check your email to confirm your subscription for My Blog Editor blog alerts. Sixth and Seventh streets). Navigating the not-so-hidden treasures of the APA Style website. is lowercase. Lowercase indefinite and definite articles (a, an, the), coordinating conjunctions, and prepositions. Q: Why is atheist not capitalized while Catholics, Muslims, Buddhists, etc., are? Bulleted lists. A: AP stories use PHP, Ajax, XML, FTP search engine optimization click-through rate pay-per-click. In a simple series, AP doesn't use a comma before the last item. 8 Tips to Make Your Writing Sound More Formal, Capitalization in APA, Chicago, MLA, and AP. Geography, addresses (state names, regions: Mideast; Northwest; northeast Minnesota; 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.; Fifth Avenue ). - Capitalize the first word following the dash or bullet. This guidance has been expanded from the 6th edition. Bulleted lists can be used with complete sentences, phrases, or a combination. Are we nitpicking punctuation with these considerations of bullet lists? Bulleted lists. STATES: Abbreviate state names when listed after a city. The first option is to use no punctuation after the bulleted items (including the final one), which may be better when the items are shorter and simpler. Below is a description of the ways you can use our case converter. A: "don't ask, don't tell" policy. They look good. While its not wrong and some style guides recommend this, its not the best business writing choice. Q: Great Depression is capitalized and so is American Revolution. Subscribe to the My Blog Editor blog for the latest TIPS on improving the QUALITY of your business content. Unsubscribe at any time. Infants often display prosocial behaviorthat is, behavior intended to help otherswhen interacting with their parents, as demonstrated in the following examples (Hammond & Drummond, 2019): If bulleted items are words or phrases (but not complete sentences), begin each item with a lowercase letter (except words such as proper nouns). Content style guide Capitalization As part of our plain language style, we use sentence capitalization as the standard on VA.gov, with a few exceptions. AP Stylebook: Use periods after bullets. Its visually cluttered, impeding easy scan. Please try again. Should the opening stem sentence end with a colon to introduce the bullet lists or use no colon? If a bulleted list contains phrases, each bullet should begin with a lowercase letter. You should always use a colon before a bulleted or numbered list. The capitalization and punctuation for each bulleted item are determined by the sentence structure. The buttons at the bottom let you choose specific case conversion options for the various styles. When your writing is crisp, clear, and easy to understand, audiences will likely leave your site with a positive impression. No periods on the end of a list of bullets unless its more than one sentence. While the above words are generally capitalized in titles regardless of style, there are some words that are generally not capitalized when using title case. Today we'll look at numbered lists. Q: A months confinement or a month's confinement? The idea is that the list reads like a single sentence, with semicolons separating each point, a conjunction just before the final entry, and a period at the end. Q: Is clarity essentially the only rule determining when a serial comma should be included? Example: You will not be accepted if you have been diagnosedwith: RECOMMENDATION: If youre creating along document full of bulleted items, you may choose to be consistent and end each item with aperiod. The Fantastic Shakers have won many awards. (Just like this bullet list youre reading now.). and Ph.D. See "doctor" for an explanation of Dr. as a title for medical doctor on first reference. After each dash, capitalize the first letter and use periods at the end of each section. See "diseases" entry for further guidance. The first step in the process of how to write an AP style press release is to familiarize yourself with the guidelines. July 31, 2019. By virtue of their formatting, numbered lists stand . Ordered vertical lists have, you guessed it, an order. You are reading a blog that focuses on business writing. Two new and potentially controversial suggestions when writing bulleted lists are to use dashes instead of bullets and to always use periods (rather than semicolons) at the end of each section, even if it is a phrase and not a sentence. Unfortunately, many brands forego style guides and choose to wing . The book club members made a list of their favorite genres: Individual list items following a complete sentence that are themselves complete sentences are each punctuated with a period.4. 2003-2022 Judy Vorfeld's Office Support Services. Problem solved. The rule of thumb in AP style is that things should be lowercased unless a rule indicates that theyre upper. Capitalize the first and the last word of titles and subtitles. The Best 2023 AP Style Cheat Sheet Every Writer Needs (Free Download) Ben Sailer Content. . Lowercase and spell out when not used with an individual name: The president issued a statement. Capitalize My Title requires JavaScript to be enabled in order to run. A colon adds emphasis, too. All major words in titles (including small words, such as "Is" and "It"); for example, "Business and Economics". Because AP recommends the colon and AP is the preferred business writing style guide, I recommend using it consistently in your business writing. And consistency goes a long way in creating clear, credible content. Numbered and unnumbered lists are more commonly used in scholarly publications. There's an old joke: Lowercase articles (a, an, the), coordinating conjunctions, and prepositions (regardless of length). Microsoft and Gregg would capitalize flat and sharp if they appeared in a title (unlike Rule 2). Dont use a period at the end of a bullet if the bullet lists are one word or a short phrase that feels like an inventory or shopping list. Awesome sauce! Other terminology (business; food and beverages; legal and justice; medical; ethnic and nationality; politics; religion ). To make peace with periods in a list, think of the entire list (including the lead-in word or phrase) as several sentences (all of which need a period at the end). Government, including federal government and U.S. government. These are perfectly acceptable, and some style guides suggest writing lists like this. And if youd like any more help with the punctuation and capitalization of lists in a document, dont forget we have proofreaders available 24/7! document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. However, you can omit the colon when a list follows a partial sentence. Q: When referring to your company in internal (or external) communications, which is correct: Corporate or corporate? If you left caps lock on accidentally, you can quickly convert your title from uppercase to lowercase by selecting the lower button above. Get an email every time a new blog post is published. For lists of fragments, short phrases, or words, capitalization is optional: My favorite fruits include: oranges apples bananas dragon fruit My favorite fruits include: Oranges Apples Bananas Dragon fruit As with the other optional punctuation above, though, make sure to use a consistent capitalization style throughout your writing. How about Civil Rights Movement? Use a period after bullet list that completes the opening stem sentence that introduces it. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Erin Wright with appropriate and specific direction to the original content. Q: Others use one word for internet-related terms. For company names, use their preference: eBay. In the example above, the first two list items end with a semicolon because the second list item has internal commas. Thanks for the comment, Anna. Q: Should the names of decades be capitalized when written out? Capitalize the first word of the title/heading and of any subtitle/subheading. Include periods after independent clauses, dependent clauses, and long phrases, and also after short phrases or words that are necessary to make the sentence grammatically complete: To register for the Annual Meeting: Go to aad.org. RULE: Use periods after independent clauses, dependent clauses, or long phrases that are displayed on separate lines in alist. Infants are happy to participate in normal household chores, such as cleaning up. 6. When do Icapitalize the first letter in abulleteditem? It also connects closely related thoughts. I like oranges. Thank you, Sarah! Everyone loves a vertical list. Next post: Make blog post content rich with layers, Previous post: Blog Post Format: Chunk It. in English Literature from Boston College, and a C.A.G.S. Lowercase articles (a, an, the), coordinating conjunctions, and prepositions. Capitalization Begin each item in a list with a capital letter unless there's a reason not to (for example, it's a command that's always lowercase). r%Q! A: AP uses hyphenated e- for generic terms such as e-commerce and e-strategies. The capitalization rules are as follows: Wikipedia editors must follow certain capitalization rules for any posts to Wikipedia. In business writing, capitalize the first letter and keep bullet list punctuation clean. These include short words and conjunctions: The other major type of title capitalization standard is sentence case. A: As a descriptive term, doctorate in psychology is lowercase. We wont send you spam. Capitalize nouns, pronouns, adjectives, verbs (including phrasal verbs such as "play with"), adverbs, and subordinate conjunctions. To create a bulleted list, use the bulleted list function of your word-processing program. The listing below reflects a few departures from Associated Press (AP) style typically used in Johns Hopkins' web and print text, as well as other style points that, while they are not departures from AP style, require special attention. Thanks for the tips. Proven techniques for attention grabbing headlines & titles. Does this help? If unchecked, quotes will be output as curly quotes. A: AP style is email (changed from e-mail), but other e- words are hyphenated: e-commerce and e-book. AP uses dashes, not bullets, for lists in news stories that follow a colon. Q: Why is "doctorate in psychology" not capped, but "Bachelor of Arts" is? In this review, we'll further consider how the semicolon operates in forming lists that involve items in a series. Capitalization looks fancy and makes things seem important. Its hard for some people to wrap their heads around this rule, especially if each item on the list is not a full sentence. As with so many things in the English language, capitalization with colons can be complex, and many times, it's more of a style issue than one of correctness. The capitalization rules are as follows: AMA style capitalization is mainly used in the scientific community. This isn't an exhaustive list, but it will get you started. Let me frame my recommendations. Mr. Heckle and Mr. Jeckle enjoy several feline activities: Like ordered lists, unordered lists that are part of an incomplete introductory sentence are lowercased and punctuated as if each item was inside the sentence.10, People who grew up in the 1980s watched a lot of television, including, The Associated Press Stylebook (AP style) recommends prefacing unordered lists with dashes instead of bullets, although bullets are an acceptable choice for some publications.AP style also recommends punctuating complete and incomplete introductory sentences with a colon and capitalizing the first word in each list item as well as punctuating each list item with a period even if the item is an incomplete sentence.11. This is usually done when each list entry finishes an introductory phrase, as shown below: Subscribe to our newsletter and get writing tips from our editors straight to your inbox. Well, that was really helpful; thanks for the effort. A: AP lowercases wine varietals such as cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay, and caps regional names such as Bordeaux, Sauternes and Chablis. endstream endobj startxref You can also use this tool to do it automatically. ap style bulleted lists capitalization veterinary ophthalmologist santa barbara June 22, 2022 flood banks advantages and disadvantages montana national guard jobs ap style bulleted lists capitalization veterinary ophthalmologist santa barbara June 22, 2022 flood banks advantages and disadvantages montana national guard jobs ap style bulleted lists If you want to, you can press Enter on your keyboard or click the Copy button next to the text box to copy the text to your clipboard. Should each point start with a capital letter and end with a period? That includes newspaper names and magazine references. The Gregg Reference Manual uses periods only after bullets that are dependent clauses and long phrases. Its all about readability. A: AP headlines cap only first word and proper names or proper abbreviations. But if you're following AP style, chances are you're overusing those big letters. A: AP lowercases those descriptive titles. A: member is lowercase, as are congressmen and congresswoman. Theyre easy to read. A: AP lowercases civil rights movement. A: Use "that" for a thing, "who" for the personal pronoun, although "that" also fits some human references. Quickly convert your title or text to sentence case by simply clicking the Sentence case button in the tool above. How will ChatGPT affect the communications profession? Bulleted lists are covered in Section 6.52 of the APA Publication Manual, Seventh Edition. Bullet points. Note however that it is not wrong to capitalize a sentence or clause after a colon. AP style provides consistent guidelines for such publications in terms of grammar, spelling, punctuation and language usage. So nice to hear the positive feedback! Numbered lists may appear with or without the period after the number. Bulleted lists help make information more scannable and easier to understand. No italics. The stylebook uses italics for examples only. Below are examples of vertical listswhich may be unnumbered, numbered, or bulletedand how to introduce, punctuate, and capitalize them. DO NOT capitalize plural words even when part of a proper name (e.g. Clarity and consistency are the building blocks of great content. A: Eight states are never abbreviated in datelines or text: Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Ohio, Texas and Utah. in compound modifiers (e.g., Mid-year, Anti-hero, etc.). 5 Free French-to-English Translation Services. When a vertical list follows a full sentence, introduce it with a colon. However, in regard to headlines, is it now true that press release headlines should be in sentence case? However, Garner qualifies this: "If you begin each item with a lowercase letter, put a semicolon at the end of each item, use and after the next-to-last item, and put a period after the last item." A: A partial spelling with hyphens in place of some letters would convey the meaning. The tricky thing is punctuation. A: AP uses dashes, not bullets, for lists in news stories that follow a colon. That's . EPA follows the AP rule after the dash or bullet: capitalize the first letter and use periods at the end of each section. Q: Is the age of an inanimate object expressed in numerals or spelled out? Online and technology (the web; the internet; URL; computers; e-commerce ). A list of information can be neatly organised using bullet points. It is the same across all of the four styles. A: a month's confinement, per the QUASI POSSESSIVES section of the "possessives" entry. The Associated Press Stylebook says when writing lists use periods, not semicolons, at the end of each section, whether it is a full sentence or a phrase.. So many choices to make! Semicolons Use in Lists: Items with Internal Punctuation Numbered, lettered, and bulleted lists. Q: What is AP's style on the military's don't ask, don't tell policy? Use no punctuation after bullets that are not sentences and do not complete the stem. Input your member identification number. Initial capitalization is preferred for list items that are complete sentences ( Example B) or stand-alone phrases (Examples C and D ).

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