Jayne Webb | January 13, 2025
Hooray — it’s 2025 ! If we’ve just survived, we’ll be looking to thrive in the year ahead. Whatever your situation, you might be thinking about writing a list of resolutions or a to-do list for the year.
At Write, we love beautiful, easy-to-follow bulleted lists. This blog offers the practical knowledge you need to nail your lists every time. No more random semicolons, rogue full stops, or jumbled sentences. Your readers will thank you.
What do you notice about these three lists?
A bulleted list is a thing of beauty and a gift to readers everywhere.
People can be confused by whether to:
Here are some things to help decide.
Did you spot that each of these three lists shows a different style of punctuating a list? There’s no one-size-fits-all style, because we write lists in more than one way for different reasons. But how do you know which style to use? The secret is understanding the logic of each type of list.
The first example shows a full sentence intro and three full sentence list items. Because they’re all full sentences (complete ideas with a subject and a verb), they each take a capital letter at the beginning and a full stop at the end. Here’s another example.
I have three New Year’s resolutions.
The second list in the quiz has only part of a sentence in the intro — the intro can’t stand alone and needs more information to complete it. Each list item (or all three) can complete the full sentence. This example is a common feature of a long, complex paragraph that has been split into a bulleted list. This type of list helps explain why some list styles in the past still have a semicolon at the end of each list item.
Here’s our New Year example.
In 2025 I will:
The third list example shows a classic list you might see on a notepad. The intro sentence is a complete sentence so it has a capital letter and a full stop. Each list item is independent and not a full sentence, so it doesn’t need a full stop. Here’s our example in this style.
I have three New Year’s resolutions.
To help readers speed through and understand your content, aim to make all your lists fit one of these styles. You can mix list styles within a document, but don’t mix styles within a single list. A quick way to check you’re on the right track is to look at the first word of each list item. Are they all a consistent part of speech, for example a verb or a noun? Does each item relate to the intro sentence in the same way? Does each item appear in a logical order for your reader?
Here are some questions we get in our workshops.
Why does one type of list have a colon instead of a full stop? When you think about the logic of this type of list, punctuating the list become easier.
The intro has a colon instead of a full stop when:
Do you always need a colon to show a list is coming? No. You only need a colon if your intro is not a complete sentence. Use a full stop after an intro that is a complete sentence.
Can you have more than one sentence in a list item? Yes, you can, but you would need to choose a list style that allows for a complete sentence for each list item (list 1 at the top of this blog). However, aim for no more than two sentences, because any longer than this would defeat the purpose of a list. You might be better to have an informative heading with a short paragraph instead.
How many list items is too many? Readers can process seven list items on average. If your list is longer than this, look for ways to categorise and group list items and give each category its own introduction.
What if your list has a mix of sentences and parts of sentences? Look for ways to rewrite your intro sentence or list items so they work together consistently.
When do I use numbers instead of bullets? Use numbers if your list explains steps or a procedure in a particular order.
Now you have the gist of lists, you can plan your own exciting goals for the new year.
Our Editing and Proofreading workshop will help you understand more about how readers process information and how sentences are put together.
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