Re: Bulleted text

[Michael Collier <mcollier -at- CSC -dot- COM>]

As much as I'd love to see this thread settled and have it go away, I have found a
need to perpetuate it...

Those in favor of not indenting bulleted lists cite the need to maintain the
visual logic of hierarchical relationships as their reason for not indenting.
However a smaller group, including myself, prefer to indent these lists because it
looks "better."

In Philip Rubens'  Science and Technical Writing: A Manual of Style (First
Edtiion, 1992) , in the section "Vertical Lists and the Period," (pp. 76-77), the
examples which show _numbered_ lists are consistently indented. The bulleted list,
however, is not.

Why should numbered lists follow different indentation rules than bulleted lists?

It should be mentioned that no specific indentation rules are given for either
numbered or bulleted lists.

Further, when the author uses a bulleted list in explaining a topic ("Transitional
Word or Phrase and Comma," p. 66) that list is indented. A casual flip-through of
the rest of the book reveals indentation as the preferred style for bulleted
lists.

So no, we can't drop it and move on. Ignoring for a moment the author's
inconsistencies, can we come up with some instances where indented bullets are
preferred, and help the writers of future style guides make clear rules?

Michael Collier, CSC Financial Services Group
mcollier -at- csc -dot- com
now in Austin, Texas...
...where technical writing has come to a screeching halt until we decide whether
or not to indent our bullets!