Items in a series in a letter

Question

Please tell me the correct way to punctuate and indent, with numbers the items in a series. Here is the sentence as I have it -

My qualifications include:
1.) Member of the Committee for New Teachers,
2.) Student Teacher Supervisor,
3.) Mentor.

Is this correct?

Thanks,
Dale

MountainHiker · Accepted Answer

Here's how I would do it.

My qualifications include the following:
- Member of the Committee for New Teachers,
- Student Teacher Supervisor, and
- Mentor.

I changed your top line, used a bullet point instead of numbers, and added an "and". The html code used to display our messages does not show our indentation properly. I trust you have some indentation (as do I), so we are both fine.

I believe your original passage is okay, for I have seen that form used often.

I have been taught that a colon should be used only if the clause can stand by itself. Thus, I tend to always tack on "the following:". To be honest, I am not completely cerrtain of this myself. But that is how I tend to do it.

Here is an excellent [url="http://webster.commnet.edu/grammar/marks/colon.htm"]web site - The Colon[/url] where I encourage you to learn more.

Note their first example:

The charter review committee now includes the following people:
the mayor
the chief of police
the fire chief
the chair of the town council

The author could have easily written....

"The charter review committee now includes: "

It is clear from looking at the list that they are all people.

One thing I don't like about their example is that they don't use commas and a period. I do. I have seen both forms used frequently.

I used bullet points instead of numbers because you don't need to use numbers. If you had something like the following....

(make believe example)

In case of a fire, ensure that you do the following 5 items:
1) sound the alarm,
2) evacuate your students,
3) check to see if others have remained behind accidentally (check the bathrooms),
4) close the windows, and
5) close the classroom door.

Here you are giving a list of items that you want done or that should be followed.

Making a long story short, I think your form is fine. I would do it slightly differently.

I hope that helps.

Items in a series in a letter

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