How to punctuate list stories

Now that everyone is writing list stories with bullet points, you had better know which punctuation mark(s) they require.

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But how do you punctuate and capitalize them?

Here are some general guidelines taken from the Chicago Manual of Style and the American Medical Association Manual of Style.

1. When full sentences are used in a list, the first word should be capitalized and appropriate end punctuation should be used. For example:

The various arguments for and against the use of the serial comma are listed below.

2. If you use bulleted lists within a sentence, capitalize and punctuate the list just as you would any other sentence. For example:

The following phrases can easily be shortened into one word:

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