« Lists, Part 5: Bulleted Lists | Main | What Would You Like to Hear About? »

March 04, 2010

Lists, Part 6: Overview

Timothy McAdooChelsea by Timothy McAdoo and Chelsea Lee

Earlier in this series, I gave examples of lettered, numbered, and bulleted lists. Whereas those posts provided detail about each type of list and how to construct them, this post synthesizes the information to help you decide what list might be best for your paper.

Chelsea has consolidated this information into a handy table that shows typical uses for each type of list. Please note that it’s a general overview of the APA Style guidelines described in the Manual, not an exhaustive or absolute list. In fact, we’d love to hear other ways you use lists—feel free to leave your suggestions in the comments.

What do you want to do with your series of items? Lettered Numbered Bulleted
Clarify the elements without drawing overmuch attention to the list itself

Visually separate the list from the surrounding text
Show procedural steps
Show a chronology (first, second, third)
Show how items have relative importance (e.g., increasing or decreasing in importance)
Show a general list, with no implied chronology, procedure, order, or differences in importance

You can also download a PDF version of this table here.

What other uses do you find for lettered, numbered, or bulleted lists?

Lists, Part 1  |  Lists, Part 2  |  Lists, Part 3

Lists, Part 4  |  Lists, Part 5  |  Lists, Part 6

TrackBack

TrackBack URL for this entry:
https://www.typepad.com/services/trackback/6a01157041f4e3970b0120a8b30d34970b

Listed below are links to weblogs that reference Lists, Part 6: Overview:

Comments

Search

For seventh edition guidelines, visit the seventh edition APA Style blog.

This search includes only sixth edition blog archive results:


ABOUT THE 6TH EDITION BLOG ARCHIVE

My Photo


About Us

Blog Guidelines

APA Style FAQs

Archives


Follow us on Instagram Follow us on Twitterrss

American Psychological Association APA Style Blog

Twitter Updates