can essay have bullet points

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Can an Essay have Bullet Points? Tips How to use them Right

Can the Essay be written in Points

One can use bullets as a way of arousing your interest in an article. However, you should do it moderately without the instance of overusing them. Points are the easiest way of breaking the information.

Besides, you must consider your document and your audience before finding it appropriate to use bullets. When you use them well, it will make it easier to write a hard-to-please audience and nail your point home. 

An essay can have bullet points if they help in presenting the arguments that the essay seeks to present. The points can help the reader understand more about the subject being written about. However, bullets in an essay should be restricted to a few lines because it is not feasible to write the whole essay in point form. An essay is a prose text and can only accommodate a few bullets.

When using bullets, ensure the sentence is relatively short. Again, the bullet points do not have to be complete sentences. Such allow the online reader to scan through the content and have a clue of what you are talking about. The bullets are great for use in an essay because they enhance the easier processing of information. 

No, you will be on safer grounds if you write without bullets. Depending on your establishment, you should avoid the use of bullets to avoid criticism and complaints.

You can organize it in a three-paragraph format which includes the introduction, body, and conclusion. You can read more about how to structure an essay in our guide and get more insights on such paragraphing.

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Tips how to incorporate bullet points into an essay.

An academic article can include lists that assist in organizing the materials and enable the reader to have a quick overview of that section.

One should construct them in a parallel fashion so as to have a point per line.

They should be consistent and organized to support the argument of that paragraph and the thesis in general.

In all cases, avoid numbers, bullets, and letters.

Several ways exist to format lists, as follows:

1. Run-In Lists 

A run-list is part of the general text where you can separate the elements by performing the following actions.

• Separate them with Numbers: You can separate the list by numbering. For example, 

The steering committee passed resolutions on 1) Consensus building, 2) Community allowances, and 3) Implementation of critical agendas. 

• Separate with Colon: It is a complete sentence followed by a list of items. There will be a separate sentence emanating from the list with a colon, as shown in the example. 

Do not hunt in the forest without the following tools: a sword, a bag, boots, and a phone.

2. Vertical Lists 

When you use the vertical lists, you should start with a full sentence that will offer an overview of what to expect. However, the list should not take a bullet format, as indicated below. 

Your admission letter should include the following items:

• The overall fee structure for the whole year
• The doctor’s recommendation part
• Your contact details

Alternatively, suppose the lead-in sentence is complete featuring all entries in the list; you can use a punctuation mark to follow each entry. For example, you can use the bullet points as indicated in the bellow sentence.

You can make whole plant-based cookies by performing the following steps: 

• Preheat the oven to a minimum temperature of 350F. 
• Add the dried food to the bowl.
• Stir all these mixtures (listed above).
• You can empty the ingredients (listed above). 
• Cover and allow it to chill in a fridge.  

In the example above, the steps use numbers as the bullet form, and they are necessary to list the steps of the recipe. Notably, every entry is a complete sentence; hence, you must use a final period. 

3. Punctuating Vertical Lists as a Sentence 

Such a scenario is actually when the list is too long. The format is ideal when the phrases consist of internal punctuations, making the reader find it hard to follow.

For example,

The physics professors proposed significant changes in the curriculum, and now it is a norm to find 

• great focus on teamwork;
• customized in-class lectures to enhance all learning styles;
• creative research techniques with an emphasis on those that require knowledge in labs;
• bilingual lesson plans.

4. Vertical Lists featuring subdivided items 

One can format a complex vertical list to resemble an outline using letters or numbers in the logical procedure. The introductory line must be a complete sentence, as indicated in the following example.

The debating club should be ready to ventilate on the following topics: 

• Cultural developments 
• The spread of the language 
• Development of kingdoms 
• The role of chiefs 
• Notable figures 

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Examples of Main Points in an Essay

You can indicate your main points in an easy to aid the understanding of the reader. For example, in the following paragraph.

Mediation is an ancient practice that users consider as a mind-body medicine that promotes a tranquil mind. It consists of relaxed breathing, a focused mind, a quiet environment, and a comfortable position.

Bullet Point Essay Example

When talking about a particular topic on ‘Rabbit repellants,’ we can justify our argument using the following formats.

A rabbit repellent is efficient in keeping the rabbits away since it has some formulations that are not pleasant to rabbits. This repellent works by forming an inhospitable environment for the rabbits, prompting them to go to the other garden. A good repellant should have the following features:

• Natural ingredients 
• Long-lasting application 
• It is non-toxic to animals and pets 

Check out my guide on whether essays can have subheadings and see the other side of writing essays other than just using bullets.

Josh Jasen or JJ as we fondly call him, is a senior academic editor at Grade Bees in charge of the writing department. When not managing complex essays and academic writing tasks, Josh is busy advising students on how to pass assignments. In his spare time, he loves playing football or walking with his dog around the park.

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Bullet Points – Rules, Usage, and Examples

| Danielle McLeod

| Punctuation

Danielle McLeod

Danielle McLeod is a highly qualified secondary English Language Arts Instructor who brings a diverse educational background to her classroom. With degrees in science, English, and literacy, she has worked to create cross-curricular materials to bridge learning gaps and help students focus on effective writing and speech techniques. Currently working as a dual credit technical writing instructor at a Career and Technical Education Center, her curriculum development surrounds student focus on effective communication for future career choices.

Bullet points help create key points to grab a reader’s attention and work on clarifying and directing the main point. They can summarize, provide directions, highlight main points, and offer an easy-to-follow structure for the reader to follow. 

Take a look at how you can use bullet points to enhance your text’s readability and structure your material. Our guide below offers rules, usage, and examples of bullet points used to help highlight the best ways to include these symbols in your writing. 

What Are Bullet Points?

Bullet points are typographical marks or symbols that introduce items in a list. Usually, a bullet point is represented by a centered dot (•), but there are different forms of bullets to pick from based on the writer’s preference. 

For example, a diamond (♦), diamond cluster (❖), an arrow (➢), and square (■) are other popular bullet point types that can be used. These can also be used to create a sub-bullet or nested bullet point following an initial bulleted idea. The important thing is to be consistent when using a different type of bullet and not to mix them up, which negates their entire purpose.  

How to Use Bullet Points That Work 

Bullet points are a great way to communicate information effectively. They provide a quick way to get the reader’s attention and offer scannable content to help make significant points that don’t require reading long blocks of text. 

Bulleted items help to engage readers by offering a quick presentation of the main ideas and information. They can also be used to present and summarize essential points quickly and efficiently, especially if you have a scanning reader who wants to see the main points before determining if they want to read the rest of the text. 

To Summarize

If you have presented a long or complicated argument in your text or provided a series of directions and information points, bullets can be used to summarize these ideas. 

For example:

To wrap it up, studying before an exam is a much better than cramming the night before. To make this effective, you should do the following:

• Gather all your study materials, notes, and text one week in advance
• Organize materials by level of difficulty
• Spend 15 to 20 minutes each night reviewing materials
• Review all main points the night before the exam 

To Provide a Fascination

A fascinating bullet is specific to points in a text that create curiosity and engage a reader, especially when bullets are used to highlight a product. They occasionally can be used as a headline (called external fascinations) or to highlight the information you want to stand out (internal fascinations). 

To List Items

Making lists with bullet points is useful when listing items separately to avoid confusing them with the rest of the words in a text block. Recipes, for example, provide ingredients that work well in bulleted form to help the reader quickly see what they need to have. 

To make this recipe, you will need the following:

To Highlight Main Points

Bullets are a great way to highlight or reiterate the main points of a text. They help emphasize information and remind the reader what they should be paying attention to. 

In order to be successful, you want to consider the following steps to ensure financial stability:

• Pay off all debt
• Keep three months’ worth of bill payments in savings
• Invest a percentage of your check each month

To List Directions

Whether giving directions to a location or instructions to complete a task, a list with bullet points can help create a step-by-step guide that is easy to follow. 

To finish glazing the cake, follow these steps:

• Mix the sugar, flavoring, and water together in a bowl
• Remove cake from oven
• Immediately pour ¾ of the glaze over the hot cake
• Allow to cool 
• Drizzle the remaining glaze over the top

Rules of Bullet Point Use

Using bullets are easy, but there are some basic bullet point style rules to remember when you include them in your writing. The majority of style guides, such as MLA or APA are consistent in their directions of bulleted use as well, but always double-check if you are constricted by guide rules. 

Use an Introductory Phrase or Sentence

Before using bullets, always be sure to first provide an introductory sentence or phrase to provide the reader context. It is important to provide this information as an explanation of why the material is being pulled from the rest of the text. 

The pet shop sells a variety of rare animals. Some of their most popular include:

• Baby skunks
• Sulfur Crested Cockatiels

Create Parallel Lists 

Parallelism is a way to keep your sentence structure grammatically consistent from one sentence to the next. The same should be applied when using bullets. Always begin your bullets with the same parts of speech and maintain the same grammatical structure for symmetrical content that is easy to read. 

She listed all the issues her students were having with bullet point format in essay examples.

• Forgetting to capitalize the first word
• Listing things out of order
• Mixing partial sentences with single words

Keep a Consistent Structure

Along with using parallel lists, also keep a consistent phrase or sentence structure . Be sure to use the same tense from one bullet to the next, and do not mix long and short sentences. If you use sentence fragments, make sure all the bullets are fragments. The same goes for complete sentences. 

Keep Ideas Simple

If you choose to bullet a complete or fragmented sentence, you should keep it simple and short. Remember to keep a consistent structure and use parallelism. 

The entire family went to different places for vacation last year:

• Aunt Rita traveled to Bali to complete her bucket list.
• Mom and Dad decided on an all-inclusive cruise.
• Mike went to a lake and fished by himself. 

Rules of Bullet Point Punctuation

There are only two essential rules of punctuation you need to know since a bullet can be a single word or single phrase, sentence fragment, or complete sentence and still be considered grammatically correct in its usage. 

Capitalization Should Stay Consistent

Generally, it would be best to always capitalize the first word following the bullet. However, you may keep single words in lowercase letters if you choose. Just stay consistent from one bullet to the next when using capital letters.

Punctuation is Reserved for Complete Sentences Only

Most bullets are single words, phrases, and sentence fragments. These do not need to be punctuated. If you are using complete sentences, you should always keep the punctuation consistent.

For example, a complete sentence should be properly punctuated with commas, colons, semicolons, and ending marks such as periods or questions marks. 

Words, phrases, and sentence fragments should not be punctuated. 

What is the Difference Between Bullet Points and Numbers?

Some people use numbers when listing information, but this isn’t always the best choice, and you should be aware of the specific uses that provide the best scenario for number use. 

To use a numbered list, you should consider if there is a specific order to the information you are highlighting, such as directions or action items. This is especially helpful for blogging and article type writing scenarios that include recipes or step by step guidelines. 

Otherwise, always use a bulleted list. These are a more versatile option overall and work to share content, improve readability, and draw attention to important information. 

Let’s Review

The most effective bullets highlight important information and bring attention to the major points of a text. They help with readability and clarity and can be used to list directions or provide summaries. 

Occasionally numbers can be used in place of a bullet point or symbol, but be sure to use numbers with information that should be listed in a specific order. 

It is common to capitalize the first word following bullet point usage; however, you may keep the word lowercase if it is a singular word. Punctuation is reserved for complete sentences only.

Grammarist is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. When you buy via the links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission at no cost to you.

2024 © Grammarist, a Found First Marketing company. All rights reserved.

Bulleted Lists

To draw visual attention to items in a list without implying that items go in a certain order (e.g., chronology, importance, priority), use a bulleted list.

Use a numbered list if you want to display items in a numbered series. Use a lettered list if you want to emphasize separate parallel items within a sentence.

To create a bulleted list, use the bulleted list function of your word-processing program. This will automatically indent the list as well. Symbols such as small circles, squares, dashes, and so forth may be used for the bullets.

Bulleted lists are covered in the seventh edition APA Style manuals in the Publication Manual Section 6.52 and the Concise Guide Section 4.14

Items that are complete sentences

If bulleted items are complete sentences, begin each item with a capital letter and finish it with a period or other appropriate punctuation. The following example demonstrates this format as well as how to include a citation for the information in the bulleted list.

Infants often display prosocial behavior —that is, behavior intended to help others—when interacting with their parents, as demonstrated in the following examples (Hammond & Drummond, 2019):

• Infants are happy to participate in normal household chores, such as cleaning up.
• Infants often display positive emotions when following parents’ behavioral requests, such as not touching the stove.
• Infants will try to help others who seem like they need help with simple tasks, such as carrying multiple objects.

Items that are words or phrases

If bulleted items are words or phrases (but not complete sentences), begin each item with a lowercase letter ( except words such as proper nouns ).

There are two options for the punctuation of bulleted lists when the items are words or phrases. The following examples demonstrate both options as well as how to integrate in-text citations into bulleted lists.

The first option is to use no punctuation after the bulleted items (including the final one), which may be better when the items are shorter and simpler.

Poor sleep quality has been linked with the following symptoms:

• higher levels of negative mood
• physical symptoms such as insomnia
• use of medications
• persistent psychological distress (Glozier et al., 2010; Lund et al., 2010)

The second option is to insert punctuation after the bulleted items as though the bullets were not there, which may be better when the items are longer or more complex.

Young adults have many motivations for texting on their smartphones:

• social connection, in which people text as a way to connect with others;
• escapism, in which people text to get away from dull or uncomfortable situations such as waiting in line; 
• distraction, in which people text to distract themselves while having a conversation with someone or being in a meeting;
• audacity, in which people text to get a response from someone, such as to break up with them or ask them on a date;
• nurturing, in which people text to foster relationships by saying things like “good morning” or “I love you”; and
• driving, in which people text while in their vehicle (Schroeder & Sims, 2018).

Further information about bulleted lists is available in the Publication Manual , including how to format lists of definitions in a glossary.

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• Writing Tips

How to Punctuate Bullet Points Correctly

4-minute read

• 20th January 2023

Bullet points are wonderful. They can help with concision, getting points across, and the organization of your text. However, poorly punctuated and formatted bullet point lists can have the opposite effect.

Punctuating bullet points correctly is something that often comes up in workplaces, academia, and beyond, and there’s a lot of conflicting information out there that has caused confusion.

So, in this blog post, we’re telling you everything you need to know, including what bullet points are, the basic rules of formatting them, how to punctuate them, mistakes to avoid, and tips for consistency and clarity.

What Are Bullet Points and How Are They Used?

Bullet points are used to format a list, with each list item being preceded by a bullet point (•). Here’s an example:

Things to do before the baby comes: ●  I need to paint the nursery. ●  John needs to assemble the cot. ●  I need to buy and fit a car seat. ●  We need to pick a name. ●  I’ll want to read some baby books.

Bullet points can be used to structure any list and are usually used to break up long blocks of text, highlight key points, or summarize text.

How to Punctuate Bullet Points

The first thing to do is check whether your style guide has anything to say about punctuating bullet points. If it does, then follow its instructions.

If no guidance has been provided, here is a commonly used and logical method of punctuating bullet points. The important thing is consistency; once you have settled on an approach, stick to it!

Capitalize the first letter of the first word of each bullet point, putting the remainder in sentence case (i.e., as if you were writing a normal sentence).

Next, decide whether to use punctuation at the end of each bullet point item.

Do use punctuation at the end:

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• If your bullet point list is made up of full sentences.
• If your list item is phrased as a question.

Here, the punctuation could be a period (.), a question mark (?), or an exclamation point (!). Whichever you choose will depend on your item and what you’re trying to convey.

Apart from the last bullet, don’t use punctuation at the end:

• If your list
• Short sentence fragments

Note that it is common to still capitalize the first word in the bullet (although style guides may vary).

Using these rules, we could rephrase the bullet point list mentioned above to avoid using punctuation:

Things to do before the baby comes: ●  Paint the nursery ●  Assemble the cot ●  Buy and fit a car seat ●  Pick a name ●  Read the baby books.

Common Issues to Avoid When Punctuating Bullet Points

If you can, avoid using full sentences and sentence fragments interchangeably, as it can make your lists challenging to read and looks messy on the page. If you do need to use a mixture, common practice is to treat the punctuation as if each bullet is a full sentence (i.e., to include punctuation at the end).

Consider how you want to punctuate sub-bullets, as this can be a bit of a minefield. The most straightforward way is to follow the approach given above (although some guides may recommend that you end sub-bullets with semi-colons and “and,”, as in a list). You can introduce the sub bullet with a colon.

Tips For Consistency

As mentioned above, consistency is crucial. Erratic formatting and punctuation can look like an error, even if the inconsistency is technically correct in isolation.

For example, if you make the stylistic choice not to include punctuation at the end of your bullet points, but then use punctuation in a different list in the same document, it will look like you’ve made a proofreading mistake.

So, regardless of how you choose to lay out your bullet points, ensure that the formatting is consistent. To ensure absolute consistency, if your style guide doesn’t cover this issue already, we advise that you use and expand on the approach we have given above. These simple steps will help you use bullet points effectively to organize and highlight important information in your writing. If you need further support with formatting bullet points, our team of experts is ready to help and will proofread your first 500 words for free!

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