Lists, Part 3: Lowercase Letters
In Part 2, I discussed how to create a simple list with serial commas and when to use semicolons in a list of items with internal commas. Today, I show how lowercase letters may be used as well.
Lowercase Letters
As the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association states on page 64 (3.04 Seriation), elements in a series may be identified by the use of lowercase letters. Lowercase letters are also useful when you need to clarify a complex list for which the individual elements might otherwise be difficult for a reader to discern.Each child was seated at a separate station and given one of the following: (a) an elephant, which all children could see but not touch in Experiment 1; (b) a kangaroo, which half of the children could see but not touch and half of the children could both see and touch in Experiment 1; or (c) both the elephant and the kangaroo. |
Note that the rule for serial commas or semicolons is still applicable. The lowercase letters simply add an additional visual cue for the reader.
More to Come
In the next two posts of this series, I’ll cover numbered lists and bulleted lists.
Lists, Part 1 | Lists, Part 2 | Lists, Part 3