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Subject:Re: Punctuation in vertical lists? From:"Wayne J. Douglass" <wayned -at- VERITY -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 25 Feb 1997 09:09:35 -0800
At 10:17 PM 2/24/97 -0600, Brian McCorkle wrote:
>I am leaning toward no colon to introduce a vertical list since the colon
>is used to signal a list, but where the list is obvious a colon would not
>be needed.
>
>The exceptions are
>1. "the following" or "as follows" require a colon per article 5.101 in the
>14th edition of Chicago.
>
>2. Where the items in the list are fairly long and could be mistaken for
>regular paragraphs.
>
If you were writing a style guide, you would be better advised to set one
rule and live with it. Nobody likes to read, "Do it this way, unless it's
the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox." I say
introduce every list with a colon and be done with it.
--Wayne Douglass
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