Multiple‐Item Lists
Robert E. Berger · 2014
Technical writing often requires the use of lists that contain more than two items. These lists can range from the very simple to the very complex. A simple list is one that requires only commas to separate its items. When lists contain items that themselves contain commas, including items that themselves contain an embedded list with more than two items, a higher order of punctuation should be used. For such purposes, the semicolon is the punctuation mark of choice. The semicolon also is preferred when each item is a complete sentence. Sometimes, even if semicolons are used, ambiguities can arise when the reader attempts to distinguish the items in a list. In such cases, the items in the list should be numbered, in order to remove any chance of misinterpretation.