Grammar, Usage, and Style Guide: SparkNotes Ultimate Style: Lists

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Lists of three or more items are usually separated by a comma.

• Emma visited Morocco, Massachusetts, and Moscow, and came back with couscous, clam chowder, and cabbage.

• On Sunday mornings, Mrs. Duncan drives Billy to math circle, buys groceries for the week, returns clothing that didn’t fit and buys more clothing, stops by the library, picks up Billy from math circle and drops him off at Johnny’s house, visits her mother-in-law, and comes home to do the previous night’s dishes—all before noon.

Semicolons to separate items

Semicolons may be used to separate the items in a list, especially if the list items include commas themselves, are complete sentences, or are simply very long.

• Billy is such a goody two-shoes: at home, he washes the dishes, sweeps the floor, and massages his mother’s sore ankles, all without being asked; at school, he brings Mrs. Welty apples and always gets good grades; and on the playground, he never pinches other kids.

Parallel Structure

All items in your list should have the same grammatical form—all nouns, all gerunds, all prepositional phrases, all verb phrases, etc.

Undesirable: Swimming, biking, and ice cream are Olga’s three favorite activities.
Better: Swimming, biking, and eating ice cream are Olga’s three favorite activities.

Bulleted and Enumerated Lists

Some lists work best when each item sits on a separate line. You may choose to indent each entry and mark it with a bullet (•), a dash (—), or another symbol. Sometimes, it makes sense to enumerate the entries—with arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, . . .), roman numerals (I, II, III, . . .), or letters (A, B, C, . . . or a, b, c, . . .). Whatever presentation you choose, be sure to be consistent.

A satisfying list has parallel structure and thoughtful punctuation. For example, if you use periods to end entries, use them consistently to end each entry.

• The camp’s welcome letter cheerfully insisted that Jenny pack the following:

• A flashlight.

• At least two bathing suits.

• A summer-reading book.

• Stamped postcards and pens.

• An index card with her home address.

• A water bottle.

• Bug spray.

• Sunscreen.

• At least two pairs of sneakers.

• A small backpack.

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