Better bullets.

Bulleted lists have always been a fast and easy way to get through a lot of related content quickly. But as we’ve become more “scanners” than readers in the internet age, they’ve become not just popular, but preferred. Unfortunately, that means bulleted lists can be a little lawless at times and ripe for mistakes. Our friends at the Associated Press have ridden to the rescue, though, with some suggested rules for making bullets better. We concur. Here’s their bulleted list about bulleted lists:

• Put a space between the dash or bullet and the first word of each item in the list.
• Capitalize the first word following the dash or bullet.
• Use periods, not semicolons, at the end of each section, whether it’s a full sentence or a phrase.
• Use parallel construction for each item in a list:
  • Start with the same part of speech for each item (in this example, a verb).
  • Use the same voice (active or passive) for each item.
  • Use the same verb tense for each item.
  • Use the same sentence type (statement, question, exclamation) for each item.
  • Introduce the list with a short phrase or sentence: These are our partners: or Our partners are:

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