Lists in running sentences

Lists that occur in running sentences follow the same principles as bulleted and numbered lists. However, do not use a colon before the list items unless the introductory text is a complete sentence:

Our busy Saturday mornings involve walking the dog, driving the kids to soccer, shopping at the markets and baking bread.

Please provide the following details: name, postal address, email address and phone number.

Avoid numbering the items in this sort of list. If numbers are essential (eg because you will later need to refer to the item by number), put the numbers in parentheses:

The assessment should be based on the principles of (1) relevance, (2) consistency and (3) accuracy.

Be careful to ensure that the items in the list are parallel (see Parallel list structure for more information).

A comma is not used between the second-last and last items in a list (ie the serial or Oxford comma) unless it is needed for clarity (see Comma for more information).

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