We received lots of feedback concerning last week's article, eLearning & Grammar: Should eLearning Text Contain End of Sentence Punctuation? Here is a sampling:
NO PERIODS and it is indeed to minimize visual clutter. That's why I use bullets whenever possible instead of lists. That's why I use bubbles. I need to communicate fast, and since periods were invented for that, I figure that any improvement on the speed of communication is alright.
Joan Dickerson, PhD, Technology Transfer Associates
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I don't write eLearning, but I do write numerous internal communications and web pages for my law firm, many of which contain quick instructions for outage workarounds. In general, I avoid punctuation at the end of instructions. One sticky situation that forces punctuation is a two-sentence instruction, caption, or bullet. I can't put a period at the end of one sentence and not at the end of the next sentence! Usually at that point I punctuate the entire series, for consistency.
Shelley List, IT Communications, DLA Piper LLP
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I tend to leave it off to keep things looking cleaner, unless the Program Manager asks specifically for end punctuation to be included.
Michael Hunsberger
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Even though we may write at only an eighth grade level, I feel correct punctuation is important. We use periods at the end of all sentences. If bulleted lists are a full sentence, it has a period at the end. If the bulleted list is a short phrase or simply a list, no periods are used.
Brenda Sing, Instructional Design Specialist, HR-Microcomputer Education Services
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Your article was very interesting. Reminds me of what happens when you get a bunch of English teachers together in a room and try to have all of them agree on anything about English. Good luck.
I took your lead and looked at several cartoon strips for guidance. They too proved equally interesting–they were consistently inconsistent. No definitive answers there.
I found myself going back to what an English teacher told me–be consistent in what your do. Readers just want to be informed. However, assuming all spelling and grammar are correct, many readers will be quick to queue in on inconsistencies. Right or wrong, being consistent has worked well for me and I hope it works well for others.
David J. Fitzpatrick, M.S., MCP, Instructional Technology Specialist
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Two thoughts: 1) Consistency. If you have some captions with multiple sentences and therefore need to use periods in those captions, it might seem odd to have other captions without punctuation. I would choose one style and stick with it throughout the session. 2) If the corporate style guide says to use periods, use the periods.
Kay Honaker, Documentation Team Member, Active Network
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We use periods at the end of all sentences in captions for consistency. Even if the caption has only one short sentence, not all captions contain only one sentence. Some of our captions contain two sentences, although we try to limit them. Periods would be needed between sentences and, therefore, also at the end, and because of this, we'd rather be consistent. Of course, one could use semi-colons, but this can be sloppy if this rule means you have to overuse them.
Lisa Rowan, Instructional Designer (ISD), Availity, LLC