Questions in Bulleted Lists
Is it appropriate to use a bulleted list in a question? Example:
Which type of flour would you use for the following items: - bread - cake - cookies
Would you put a question mark at the end of each bullet? Would you only use a question mark at the end of the last bullet? Does the sentence need to be re-worded?
cmm05
July 19, 2010, 12:00pm
How do I punctuate a bulleted list of questions? For example:
Repondents were asked three three questions: "How old are you?"; "What is your race?"; and "What is your ethnicity?".
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writerswrite2005
March 20, 2009, 8:58am
Does it have to be a question?
I'd change the stem to:
Identify the type of flour you would use for:
- bread.
- cake.
- cookies.
(Each item in the list can be placed at the end of the stem to make it a complete sentence, which is why I added punctuation.)
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crbrimer89
March 19, 2009, 2:18pm
When I first read this, I thought, "why even have bullets?" Then I saw that the three items did, in fact, require different types of flour. The way I would do it is as follows:
Which type of flour would you use for the following items:
1. bread
2. cake
3. cookies
But if you wanted them to end in question marks you would want it to look like this:
Which type of flour would you use to make...
1. bread?
2. cake?
3. cookies?
That is my opinion.
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Mike (unregistered)
January 30, 2009, 9:20pm
"Which type of flour would you use for bread? Which type of flour would you use for cake? Which type of flour would you use for cookies?"
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Tom (unregistered)
August 7, 2008, 3:03pm
I would likely format it like so
Which type of flour would you use for the following items?
a) bread
b) cake
c) cookies
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vera (unregistered)
July 9, 2008, 12:25pm
I was going to suggest to just say "Name the type of flower..." but Tolken beat me to it. :)
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Tolken (unregistered)
June 9, 2008, 5:59am
Punctuation of bulleted lists is always a nasty. My advice is always that if you can't express exacty what you want to express WITHOUT PUNCTUATION then don't use a bulleted list at all.
Don't put ", or" or ", and" at the end of bullet items, either.
The trick: finish a sentence before beginning the bulleted list. NJ's suggestion is very sensible. If you want to be scrupulous, rewrite the sentence:
"For each item in the following list, which type of flour would you use?"
or even replace it with an imperative:
"For each item in the following list, state the type of flour you would use."
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Rob
May 28, 2008, 2:53pm
There are many occasions in the English language where something that is not technically incorrect is still bad from a stylistic perspective. That's what I think you're dealing with here.
I suggest ending the initial part of the question with a colon, then following with the three items separated by commas or--if they're longer options--by semicolons. Bullet points are certainly an option, but I don't know the rules on how those are handled.
Best of luck.
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nataliejost
May 28, 2008, 6:49am
That's a good question. If it were me, I'd replace the colon with a question mark and leave the list as is.
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