Query about using bullet points...please help!

[mutantcamel]

I'm writing an information leaflet for my NVQ that contains quite a few bullet points. I'm not quite sure if each bullet point should have a comma, full stop or no punctuation at the end. Also I'm not sure if the word after each bullet point should start with a capital letter. Below are a few extracts where I've used bullet points. Any help on whether this is correct or not would be gratefully appreciated..........


All the following types of employees are covered:-

• Temporary
• Permanent
• Part-Time
• Contract Workers

People who are not covered are:-

• Volunteers - unless otherwise stated in their contracts
• Workers in the Armed Forces

The employer has a duty to make reasonable adjustments at work so a disabled person is not placed at a disadvantage. This may include:-

• Modifying the building and office equipment - e.g 'placing a ramp outside'.
• Position certain staff on the ground floor, if no lifts are in place.
• Be flexible with office hours and time off for e.g medical treatment.

The term 'making reasonable adjustment' is not specifically defined by the act. The employer has to think about areas such as:-

• The practicality of making the changes.
• How long it will take.
• The cost involved.
• Any possible disruptions caused.

[Mister Micawber]

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I would suggest that you capitalize; I like the look. Do not, however, use periods unless you are bulleting complete sentences.

Also, in introducing the bullet points, use either a colon (formal) or an m-dash (informal) but not both.

More importantly, be sure that the items in the list exhibit parallel structure:

• Modifying the building and office equipment - e.g 'placing a ramp outside'
• Positioning certain staff on the ground floor, if no lifts are in place
• Being flexible with office hours and time off for e.g medical treatment

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[mutantcamel]

Thanks for that, I have made the following changes. I'm not sure what counts as a proper sentence, the first bullet points obviously are not, but what about the last set? Also I'm not sure about the Volunteers line, so I left full stop out. I am getting marked on punctuation as well as spelling and just using the checker you get with Microsoft Word is far from being foolproof.


All the following types of employees are covered:

• Temporary
• Permanent
• Part-Time
• Contract Workers

People who are not covered are:

• Volunteers - unless otherwise stated in their contracts
• Workers in the Armed Forces

The employer has a duty to make reasonable adjustments at work so a disabled person is not placed at a disadvantage. This may include:

• Modifying the building and office equipment - e.g 'placing a ramp outside'.
• Positioning certain staff on the ground floor, if no lifts are in place.
• Being flexible with office hours and time off for e.g medical treatment.

The term 'making reasonable adjustment' is not specifically defined by the act. The employer has to think about areas such as:

• The practicality of making the changes
• How long it will take
• The cost involved
• Any possible disruptions caused

[Mister Micawber]

Looks much better. The last set needs no periods; neither does the third set, which are nonfinite clauses.

If you are being checked on spelling, I think I would lower-case time in Part-time.

In the caption to your third set, this refers to adjustments, so should be changed to these.

Remove the parentheses from placing a ramp outside.

The g of e.g. also needs a stop.

In the caption to your last set, change adjustment to adjustments to match the original of the quote.

To maintain parallelism, the second item should read The length of time rather than How long.

That's all I see.
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[mutantcamel]

Thanks, what about these bullet points:

• Harrassment refers to not treating someone with respect and dignity.
• Racial group refers to a persons' race, skin colour, nationality or ethnic origin.

Full stops? Should 'group' be a capital letter? I don't think so myself. Also on the subject of headings such as:

Discrimination By Other Workers

Should every new word start with a capital letter, even for words such as 'by'? Also what about:

The Duty Of The Employer

I've been told that the 'of' and 'the' in the middle should be small letters, is this true?

Please help!

[mutantcamel]

Also what about the titles:

When is Discrimination Allowed?

Have you been Discriminted Against?

[Mister Micawber]

Harrassment refers to not treating someone with respect and dignity.
Racial group refers to a persons' race, skin colour, nationality or ethnic origin.

Full stops? -- Yes, I suppose we must here (I don't like the end punctuation, but they are indeed complete sentences).

Should 'group' be a capital letter? -- No.


Discrimination By Other Workers

Should every new word start with a capital letter, even for words such as 'by'? -- No; by should be lower case.

The Duty Of The Employer

I've been told that the 'of' and 'the' in the middle should be small letters, is this true? -- Yes; articles, particles, prepositions, pronouns are usually lower case unless they begin the title.

When is Discrimination Allowed? -- This looks OK as is, but titling in the form of complete sentences makes the decision to capitalize more difficult; many would suggest that this should be done as normal: When is discrimination allowed?

Have you been Discriminted Against? -- This one, by the same guideline, looks odder; I think I would rather see Have you been discriminated against?

Of course, much depends on the context within the page, the format of the other titles/bullets, etc, and the overall presentation. This problem borders on that of layout and style, rather than a simple matter of punctuation and capitalization.
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[mutantcamel]

Thanks for that, I agree the headings which are questions do look better in lower case. As you can see by my other headings, most of the other words are in capitals. Do you think it's okay to use both ways, it's for an information leaflet on discrimination, so it's not a formal report or anything. I suppose I could put everything apart from from the first word in lower case, but maybe that would look stupid! I just don't want to loose marks, who would have thought writing something would prove so difficult!

[Mister Micawber]

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Every piece of public writing is important, whether leaflets or reports-- but I think you've done a pretty good job, so I wouldn't worry about your grade. As for the headings... hmm. I'd say, arrange them so they look good together; try to be as consistent as you can; and follow the lower-case particles/articles/prepositions rule. That's the best you can do.

Good luck.
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