Content style guide
Bulleted lists
Bulleted lists help make information more scannable and easier to understand. If a sentence contains more than three items or ideas, we recommend breaking them up into a bulleted list.
- Capitalize the first word of every bullet.
- Don’t use a bulleted list for only one item.
- Keep each item succinct for scannability (for example, 1 or 2 sentences each).
- When using “and” or “or” at the end of each bullet point, use a comma and bold the “and”/”or” at the end of each bullet point.
- If your list has more than 7 items, use subheads to break out the list into smaller bullet lists.
- Use parallel construction within the same list. (Make each bullet start with a verb; or make each a noun phrase; etc.)
Punctuation for bullet lists
- When the list is made up of fragments, don’t use ending periods.
- When the list is made up of full sentences, use ending periods. (Example: Each item could be a complete sentence if it stood alone, even without the intro sentence or header.)
- Don’t use a period at the end of the last bullet in a series of bullets.
Note: Punctuation of bullets are determined by list, not by page. It’s OK to have a list of bullets that are fragments (that don’t use periods) on the same page as a list of bullets that are full sentences (that use periods). Just use the correct house style of punctuation for each type of list.
Like this
Use parallel construction and don’t use ending periods for fragments.
What documents and information do I need to apply?
- Social Security number
- Bank account direct deposit information
- Education and military history
- Basic information about the school
Not this
What documents and information do I need to apply?
- Social Security number,
- Bank account direct deposit information,
- Education and military history,
- And basic information about the school.
Like this
When using “and” or “or” at the end of each bullet point, use a comma and bold the “and”/”or” at the end of each bullet point.
Both of these must be true. You’re:
- Enrolled in VA health care, and
- Registered as a patient in a VA health facility
And you must have one of these free accounts:
- An Advanced or Premium My HealtheVet account, or
- A Premium DS Logon account (used for eBenefits and milConnect), or
- A verified ID.me account that you can create here on VA.gov
Not this
All of these must be true. You’re:
- Enrolled in VA health care
- Registered as a patient in a VA health facility
- And you must have one of these free accounts: An Advanced or Premium My HealtheVet account, a Premium DS Logon account (used for eBenefits and milConnect), or a verified ID.me account that you can create here on VA.gov.