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Q. Are bulleted lists allowed in APA Style? How do I format a bulleted or numbered list?
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Answered By: Jonathan Faerber (he/him/his) Last Updated: Nov 04, 2021 Views: 168652
APA Style (7th ed.)
Bulleted and numbered lists are permitted by the APA Style rules; however, if you're unsure if your instructor will permit them in your assignment, please check with your instructor. Keep in mind that because bulleted or numbered lists only provide surface-level information rather than include analysis, and because the focus of academic writing is to demonstrate your critical thinking, these lists are used sparingly in formal academic writing in favor of communicating your ideas in complete sentences and paragraphs. See below for information regarding formatting lists.
Bulleted lists
The capitalization and punctuation for each bulleted item depends on whether the items form sentences or sentence parts. If the bulleted text is a full sentence, capitalize the first letter of the first word and end the paragraph with a period. For example:
- This is a sentence.
- This is another sentence.
- This is the last sentence of the bulleted list.
When a bulleted list separates three or more elements within a sentence, “begin each bulleted item with a lowercase letter” and either punctuate each item in the list as parts of a sentence (e.g., inserting commas), or exclude punctuation after each item (American Psychological Association [APA], 2020, pp. 190-191). For example:
In December 2018, British Columbia had an extreme storm that caused:
- massive damage due to high winds,
- widespread power outages that lasted many days, and
- flooded roads.
This storm affected multiple areas on Vancouver Island, including:
For other examples of bulleted lists, see Bulleted Lists in the APA Style Blog. For an explanation of the difference between a complete sentence and its parts, please see Sentences and Sentence Elements on the Writing Centre website.
Numbered lists
Numbered lists are helpful to identify the organization of information, such as "itemized conclusions” or “steps in a procedure" (APA, 2020, p. 190). Keep the following steps when creating a number list:
- Create the numbered list using the numbered list function on Microsoft Word or similar program.
- Set off Arabic numerals at the beginning of each item with a period rather than parentheses (i.e., “2.” rather than “(2)” or “2)”)
- Begin each item in the numbered list with a capital letter, and follow appropriate sentence punctuation throughout the list, using end marks like periods, exclamation, or question marks where required.
Please keep in mind that "the use of 'numbered lists' may connote an unwanted or unwarranted ordinal position (e.g. chronology, importance, priority) among the items" (APA, 2020, p. 190). To avoid this suggestion of position, use a bulleted list instead. For more information on numbered lists, see Numbered Lists in the APA Style Blog.
Lettered lists within a sentence
Lettered lists within a sentence are a good way to identify elements in a series within a paragraph or sentence without breaking the elements into a numbered or bulleted list. To indicate the list, use lowercase letters in parentheses (American Psychological Association, 2020, p. 189). For example, "students were asked to choose between completing (a) a formal research essay, (b) a documentary-style video, (c) a multi-media experience that involves participants". To punctuate a lettered list within a sentence, use commas between each of three or more items, or use semicolons when separating items that include commas, such as a series of phrases (APA, 2020, p.189). See Lettered Lists from the APA Style Blog for more information and examples.
American Psychological Association. (2020). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (7th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1037/0000165-000
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Capstone Form and Style
More apa style guidelines: lists.
When listing three or more items, include a serial comma (also known as an Oxford comma) before the last item and the conjunction “and” or “or.” If one or more clauses contains commas in them, use a semicolon instead of a comma to separate the clauses. (Note that the term "seriation" used in APA 6 does not appear in APA 7 and has been replaced by "lists.”)
You may also list items in three other formats: lettered, numbered, and bulleted.
Lettered Lists (APA 7, Section 6.50)
If you have a series of elements in the body of a paragraph, separate each element with lowercase letters enclosed in parentheses. Although only necessary for more complex elements, here is a simple example: (a) lions, (b) tigers, and (c) bears. Items and phrasing should be parallel.
Numbered Lists (APA 7, Section 6.51)
When ordinal position is important, list items vertically.
The organization’s emergency management protocol consists of seven sequential steps:
- Step 1 involves ...
- Step 2 consists of …
- Step 3 has five components: ...
This would be appropriate when you need to show a specific order of elements, such as in steps in a procedure or conclusions.
List items should be complete sentences or paragraphs in a series (not phrases).
Use Microsoft Word’s numbered list function to create the list; select the option with Arabic numerals (not enclosed within parentheses) followed by a period. Capitalize the first word after the number and the first word of any subsequent sentence. End each sentence with appropriate final punctuation. List items should be double-spaced and indented .5 inch.
Bulleted Lists (APA 7, Section 6.52)
Bulleted lists are appropriate when presenting a list of items in no particular order. Bulleted list items can be complete sentences or phrases or sentence fragments. Use Word’s bulleted list function to create the list. List items should be double-spaced and indented .5 inch.
If complete sentences, begin each list item with a capital letter as you would a regular sentence and insert final punctuation (usually a period) at the end of each list item.
Recommendations for improving patient safety at the facility include the following:
- Install adequate lighting and ventilation in wards, patient rooms, and other areas.
- Incorporate regular training and drills to promote staff awareness of safety procedures.
- Regularly solicit staff and patient and family feedback using an outside firm.
If phrases or sentence fragments, begin each list item with a lowercase letter.
In APA 7, you have two options for punctuating bulleted phrases: to include no punctuation after each list item and after the last list item or to include commas or semicolons, as appropriate, after each list item and final punctuation at the end of the list. (Note that APA 6 only recommended the option to punctuate lists with commas or semicolons.)
The first option may be better for shorter, less complex lists.
- installing adequate lighting and ventilation
- incorporating regular training and drills
- regularly soliciting staff and patient and family feedback
The second option may be better for longer, more complex lists.
- installing adequate lighting and ventilation in wards, patient rooms, and other areas;
- incorporating regular training and drills to promote staff awareness of safety procedures; and
- regularly soliciting staff and patient and family feedback using an outside firm.
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See below for information regarding formatting lists. Bulleted lists. The capitalization and punctuation for each bulleted item depends on whether the items form sentences or sentence parts. If the bulleted text is a full sentence, capitalize the first letter of the first word and end the paragraph with a period. For example: This is a sentence.
End each sentence with appropriate final punctuation. List items should be double-spaced and indented .5 inch. Bulleted Lists (APA 7, Section 6.52) Bulleted lists are appropriate when presenting a list of items in no particular order. Bulleted list items can be complete sentences or phrases or sentence fragments.