list-marks

A rule that is off by default: it reports a list item whose initial capital or closing full stop differs from the list's other items once a decisions table turns it on.

What it catches

A list item whose initial capital or closing full stop differs from the list's other items.

Dimension

conventions: a house or genre convention is broken. A finding is counted on the dimension of its rule, the cost it names to the reader.

Why

Google's developer style guide (developers.google.com/style/lists) asks for "the same syntax/structure for all list items in a given list", and Microsoft's (learn.microsoft.com/style-guide/scannable-content/lists) for items "consistent in structure", in capitalization and end punctuation alike. A reader scanning a list reads a change of form as a change of meaning. Only a list of 3 or more items is judged, and an item that is only code or a link is skipped; so is a first word with a capital past its first letter (API, GitHub), which is a name. The items outside the most common form are reported, by name. It is a convention, not a study, and no labeled firing yet, so it ships off and a decisions table turns it on.

Default decision

The code is PRF1060. The decision depends on the kind of text judged:

Changing it

A decisions table sets this rule to deny, advise or off, for everything judged or for the files a glob matches. Proofread reads the table from the file its -decisions flag names:

{
  "rules": {"list-marks": "deny"},
  "paths": {"blog/**": {"list-marks": "off"}}
}

rules applies to every file. A glob in paths applies to the files it matches, and the last match wins. A rule set to off never reports.

Seeing it

A finding names the rule, its code and the decision that applies, and links here:

{"rule": "list-marks", "code": "PRF1060", "decision": "off", "url": "https://eli.gladman.cc/magus/reference/proofread/list-marks/"}

proofread rules prints this entry with every other rule's.

See also

• All proofread rules - every rule, grouped by what it checks
• Writing rules - how the rules apply to this repository's pages and pull requests
• The findings contract - the fields every finding carries