Bulleted lists
Bullet points are great for emphasising important information. Use them when the items in your list are in no particular order. And do so sparingly: too many bulleted lists in the same piece of content will mean that their impact is lost.
If you're introducing your list with some text, follow that text with a colon.
If the items in your list are full sentences, punctuate them like sentences, with a capital letter and a full stop.
Logging has already had devastating effects on the Congo basin rainforest:
- The forest can no longer store as much carbon.
- Biodiversity is threatened.
- Forest fires are becoming more frequent.
- The forest is less resilient to climate change.
If the items in your list are not full sentences, follow them with commas, except the penultimate item, which should end with "and", and the last item, which should end with a full stop. And don't start them with capital letters. Punctuate your list as you would a normal sentence.
Logging has already had devastating effects on the Congo basin rainforest:
- reducing the amount of carbon the forest can store,
- threatening biodiversity,
- increasing forest fires and
- damaging the forest’s resilience to climate change.
If the items in your list are not full sentences, but have multiples clauses, end them with semicolons, except the penultimate item, which should end with "; and" and the last item, which should end with a full stop.
It’s vital that we protect the Congo basin, because the forest:
- is home to iconic species, like bonobos, okapi and manatees;
- contains peatlands, which store huge amounts of carbon; and
- provides food, often bushmeat, for millions of people.