Punctuation in academic presentations (bullet point lists)

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Tanit

#277972 Mon, 09 Oct 06 12:56 AM

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I always feel helpless when I have to prepare a powerpoint presentation in English. I really don't know which rules (if any) apply!

1. Do I have to capitalise the first letter in each line?

2. How do I end each line?

For instance:

[ ... ] zones on which building is forbidden:
- (W\w)etlands (";" or "." or nothing)
- (C\c)oastal areas (";" or "." or nothing)
- (N\n)atural reserves (.)

I suppose my problem comes from the inference of my first language, so I'd be really grateful if a native speaker could help me!

Thanks.

Tanit

Joined on Mon, Jul 31 2006

In the middle of the Mediterranean Sea

Senior Member (2,143)

A man can do only what he can do. But if he does that each day he can sleep at night and do it again the next day. (A. Schweitzer)

Punctuation

Grammar Geek

#277988 Mon, 09 Oct 06 02:59 AM

My recommendation is to use capital letters to start, with no end punctuation.

Wetlands
Coastal areas
Natural reserves

(Are you sure the last one isn't nature reserves?)

The only real rule is to be consistent, not only within one slide, from also from slides to slide. I do PowerPoint presentations frequently and I am anal about consistency.

Grammar Geek

Joined on Tue, Jan 10 2006

Pennsylvania, USA

Veteran Member (15,590)

Barbara, who answers in American English.

Capital letters, Punctuation

Tanit

#278111 Mon, 09 Oct 06 09:22 AM

Thanks for tour kindness, Barbara.

May I go on with questions?

1. What if the list were part of an essay instead of a presentation? Would you use punctuation marks in this case? If the answer is yes, which type?

2. I googled "nature reserves" and "natural reserves" (language=english) : 2690000 vs 259000.

Ratio > 10:1 show me "nature reserves" is much more common, but 259000 is too high a number to make me think it's only a mistake. Is "natural reserve" a non idiomatic expression, or is there any difference between the two, or it's really an error?

Tanit

Difference between, Essays, Expressions, Numbers, Punctuation

Grammar Geek

#278222 Mon, 09 Oct 06 02:56 PM

In an essay, with only three items on the list, and all of them being quite short, I would just write them in the sentence. If the preceding part of the sentence is quite long, then use a colon. blah blah blah resulted in three areas being declared off-limits for development: x, y, and z.

With more than three or four, or if each item is quite lengthy, then use the same format as for PowerPoint. But be equally consistent in your usage! If one is a noun phrase, make them all noun phrases. If one is a sentence, make them all sentences. And so on.

I speak only "American" English, so a physical place set aside for local plants and animals to live without being disturbed is a nature reserve. I don't know about other countries' use of that phrase. (Is it possible that at least some of the others were talking more about natural resources being kept in reserve? I don't know - but I agree, over a quarter milllion uses is too high for an error.)

Grammar Geek

Colons, Essays, Noun phrases, Nouns, Punctuation

Tanit

#278256 Mon, 09 Oct 06 03:59 PM

Really helpful, thank you very much!

Hope someone else will have their say about "natural\nature" reserve.

Meanwhile, I'll change it. Wink [;)]

Tanit

Punctuation

Grammar Geek

#278301 Mon, 09 Oct 06 05:07 PM

You're very welcome. I have found that I am not particularly skilled in helping foreign students learn English, because so many of the questions are about "why" and I don't know why - just what is. And some of these grammar terms seem esoteric to me. But I am a technical writer for a living, so your types of questions (which are really a matter of style more than grammar) I can actually answer!