We modify our usual social work practice approach in the context of a measles or whooping cough outbreak to prevent the transmission of the viruses. Measles, whooping cough and immunisation

Page URL: https://practice.orangatamariki.govt.nz/practice-centre-style-and-content-guide/how-we-write/lists/
Printed: 06/12/2024
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Last updated: 01/04/2019

Lists

We use lists to break up our text and make it easier to read.

Using lists

We use bulleted lists to list items or points, and numbered lists for process overviews to show the rough order things should happen in.

Bulleted lists

We use 2 types of bulleted lists — single-sentence lists and multi-sentence lists.

We try to:

  • keep our lists short (2 to 7 items)
  • only use 1 level of nesting.

Single-sentence lists

When we’re writing a single-sentence list, we:

  • start with a stem sentence that all the points have in common
  • start each point in lower case, and only use a full stop on the last point
  • sometimes use 'and' or 'or' on the second-to-last point, if we need to be especially clear 
  • place a comma after the last word before the 'and' or 'or'
  • check that each point makes a full sentence when read with the stem.

Multi-sentence lists

Multi-sentence lists are introduced by a complete sentence.

  • Each point in the list is also a complete sentence.
  • Each point can be 1 to 3 sentences long.
  • Each point begins with a capital letter and ends with a full stop.

Numbered lists (process blocks)

We use numbered lists for process blocks.

Components of content pages – process blocks