Macmillan Holdings, LLC. Grammar Girl, Grammar Girl's, QDnow, and Quick and Dirty Tips are all trademarks of Macmillan Holdings, LLC. Today's topic is how to format vertical lists. Phedora Johnson grammar http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/formatting-vertical-lists.aspx?commentid=20045#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/formatting-vertical-lists.aspx?commentid=20045#Comments Wed, 21 Oct 2009 04:23:13 GMT rob grammar Oops. I mentioned Tamar in my post, when it was mary rovaris I was commenting on. I wasn't paying enough attention, and just got it wrong. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/formatting-vertical-lists.aspx?commentid=19370#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/formatting-vertical-lists.aspx?commentid=19370#Comments Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:39:32 GMT rob grammar Regarding "First of all...", I've run into the same conundrum as Tamar. Somewhere along the way, I decided that those three words in that order have become an English (or at least North American) idiom indicating an agrumentative and aggressive tone. Grammatically, I can't see anything wrong with it, but it will tend to cause someone to take offence. What I usually do when I notice that I've written "First of all" is change it to "Firstly". It feels less emotionally charged to me, a native English speaker from Canada. On a similar note, I once received a short note of appreciation from a co-worker consisting of three words: "Thanks a lot!". The idiomatic meaning of this phrase is something like "I'm angry that you did that thing, because it caused me trouble". However, taking into account the fact that English was a new language for the person who wrote it, I was able to understand that she intended the same meaning as "Thank you very much". http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/formatting-vertical-lists.aspx?commentid=19369#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/formatting-vertical-lists.aspx?commentid=19369#Comments Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:35:57 GMT SA grammar I find your website incredibly helpful. I do a lot of writing at work and often find my coworker and I have learned different rules. Your website often resolves the differences. (usually in my favor - hee hee) http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/formatting-vertical-lists.aspx?commentid=17417#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/formatting-vertical-lists.aspx?commentid=17417#Comments Thu, 11 Jun 2009 15:31:30 GMT Ami Isseroff grammar It is not possible or advisable to carry out this dictum in every case. For example "Ingredients: Wheat flour, salt,..." WOuld you really make that into "The following are the ingredients of the product:..."?? Or would you remove punctuation entirely?? Microsoft agree as well. MS Style Guide. http://faculty.washington.edu/farkas/TC407/MSTP-V3.pdf "Punctuating lists Introduce a list with a sentence or fragment ending with a colon. Begin each entry in a bulleted or numbered list with a capital letter. Make entries in a list parallel. End each entry with a period if all entries are complete sentences, are a mixture of fragments and sentences, or complete the introductory sentence. An exception is when all entries are short imperative sentences (three words or fewer) or single words; these entries do not need a period. If all entries are fragments that do not complete the introduction, do not end them with periods. Correct If you use printer fonts: Choose a printer before creating a presentation. Install all the fonts and printers you'll use by selecting them in the Print Setup dialog box. The database includes: Reports Forms Tables Modules " Since your "rule" is not respected by Chicago Manual of Style or Microsoft, perhpas it is better to change the rule then to have thousands of people frenetically revising aircraft safety check lists so to repeat (over and over) "Follow these steps to check the XXX:" etc. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/formatting-vertical-lists.aspx?commentid=16866#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/formatting-vertical-lists.aspx?commentid=16866#Comments Wed, 06 May 2009 13:20:47 GMT Tamar grammar I have two questions, first I am revising my resume and I am the owner and buyer for my store, do I capitalize Owner and Buyer or not? Secondly, is this the correct way to structure the following sentence? Oversee Accounting/Finance, Advertising/Marketing, and Sale transactions. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/formatting-vertical-lists.aspx?commentid=15481#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/formatting-vertical-lists.aspx?commentid=15481#Comments Sat, 24 Jan 2009 18:18:55 GMT mary rovaris grammar is it appropriate to start a sentence with "First of all"? The message was in response to a doctor's messagae to me about why a report was not sent to me. "First of all" and then I recognized how busy the team is with the transitions that are happening. Thank you for clarifying this for me. I was told I should not have started the sentence off that way because it sounded negative. Mary http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/formatting-vertical-lists.aspx?commentid=12462#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/formatting-vertical-lists.aspx?commentid=12462#Comments Tue, 29 Apr 2008 16:29:47 GMT Kristin grammar Karen Judd extensively covers ordered and unordered lists (in much the same fashion as you did, Grammar Girl) in her book, "Copyediting: A Practical Guide." The rest of the book is great too, if a little dry. http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/formatting-vertical-lists.aspx?commentid=12077#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/formatting-vertical-lists.aspx?commentid=12077#Comments Thu, 20 Mar 2008 23:33:17 GMT Aardvark grammar Thanks for the examples. These help. Your first sentence should read as the following: As soon as you collect the money, I will deposit it. Your second and third sentence should have monies changed to money. Although moneys and monies can be used to indicate sums of money, the uses above are more common. The Amreican Heritage Dictionary has this to say about the singular and plural of the word money: "Sums of money, especially of a specified nature. Often used in the plural: state tax moneys; monies set aside for research and development. In all of aardvark's research, 98% of uses of the word money were singular. Perhaps someone out in our readership may have a better set of rules to use than old aardvark could locate. Hope this helps. ----- http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/formatting-vertical-lists.aspx?commentid=557#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/formatting-vertical-lists.aspx?commentid=557#Comments Wed, 11 Jul 2007 20:14:13 GMT geri grammar As soon as you collect the monies, I will deposit it. Any monies you spend on classroom materials can be reimbursed. I need to verify that the total of the monies in the deposit bag match the amount written on the deposit slip. ----- http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/formatting-vertical-lists.aspx?commentid=556#Comments http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/formatting-vertical-lists.aspx?commentid=556#Comments Wed, 11 Jul 2007 17:36:22 GMT Wed, 21 Oct 2009 04:23:13 GMT http://grammar.quickanddirtytips.com/formatting-vertical-lists.aspx feedback@quickanddirtytips.com (Managing Editor) feedback@quickanddirtytips.com (Webmaster) en-us