Excess punctuation without purpose can make a document or web content look unnecessarily busy. It adds unexpected visual clutter, especially in short or standalone text like list items, captions. For URLs, the reason is not just visual - adding a period at the end can break the link when it's copied or clicked.
Bullet points should be short and sharp, and should generally not require full stops at all.
❌ Figure: Bad example - Too much punctuation
✅ Figure: Good example - Clean with no full stops
Image captions should be short and sharp, and should generally not require full stops at all.
{{ IMAGE }}
Figure: A group of people in a meeting room.
❌ Figure: Bad example - Too much punctuation
{{ IMAGE }}
Figure: A group of people in a meeting room
✅ Figure: Good example - Clean with no full stops
If your bullet point or caption has more than one sentence, consider rephrasing it, or using a different separator - like a dash; you could also consider a semicolon instead.
However, if it is necessary to have more than one sentence in these items (should be rare) a full stop is needed. In this case, you should end with a full stop for consistency and completeness.
Reminder: The rest of figure captions and the bullet points on content should not have full stops.
{{ IMAGE }}
Figure: A group of people in a meeting room. They appear to be engaged in a discussion
❌ Figure: Bad example - A multi-sentence item becomes a mini-paragraph - not ending it with a full stop looks inconsistent
{{ IMAGE }}
Figure: A group of people in a meeting room. They appear to be engaged in a discussion.
✅ Figure: Good example - Multi-sentence items should end with a full stop for consistency
Descriptive links are recommended whenever possible, but if you must display the raw URL, remember to avoid adding a full stop at the end, as it can break the link when copied or clicked.
For more information, visit https://ssw.com.au/employment.
❌ Figure: Bad example - Full stop at the end can break the link
For more information, visit https://ssw.com.au/employment
✅ Figure: Good example - No full stop after the URL