What is the correct punctuation after "as follows"? [closed]

Solution 1:

Semicolons to separate the chapters, as proposed in another answer, is certainly a valid approach. However, I'd like to answer from a different angle - one that comes from my experience with lists in technical writing, where they are very common.

First of all, the right punctuation after "as follows" is a colon. There's no way around that. "Follows" or "following" is the indicator. You could potentially get away with a period at the end of a sentence like "The following diagram illustrates the flow of X through Y." Even in this case, a colon is preferable. But if the lead-in actually ends with "as follows" or "the following", then a colon is the only option.

Regarding your question about whether the colon can introduce more than one sentence: Indeed it can. For example, here in this paragraph, it does. What I'm doing here is not the same as what you did in your example, though. Everything I'm saying is part of the same point. In your example, you actually have introduced a list, and each item in your list consists of a complete sentence, so the best way to present that would be as a bulleted or numbered list.

Incidentally, each of the items in the bulleted list would start with a capital letter, since it's a complete sentence. When you run into the first sentence directly from the lead-in, as I did in the previous paragraph, it's up to you (or the house style you're writing for) to decide whether to capitalise after the colon. I prefer to do so, but that isn't a binding rule.

Regarding your question about the last sentence, which isn't part of the chapters, I'm assuming that you know that the last sentence is unnecessary and that you've just used it as a (perhaps rather silly) example to raise the entirely valid question: "How do I indicate to the reader that this is no longer part of the stuff that followed the colon?" Your intuition is correct. A new paragraph is the way to do that, and there's nothing weird about it.

Solution 2:

You should introduce your list with a colon, and separate items with semicolons.

From the University of Leicester:

The semi-colon

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To separate items in a list

Use the semi-colon to separate items in a list when one or more items contain a comma. (These examples use a colon to introduce items in the list. An explanation of the use of the colon is given below.)

The speakers were: Dr Sally Meadows, Biology; Dr Fred Eliot, Animal Welfare; Ms Gerri Taylor, Sociology; and Prof. Julie Briggs, Chemistry.

The four venues will be: Middleton Hall, Manchester; Highton House, Liverpool; Marsden Hall, Leeds; and the Ashton Centre, Sheffield.

The main points in favour of the system were that it would save time for buying, accounts and on-site staff; it would be welcome by the reception staff; it would use fewer resources; and it would be compatible with earlier systems.

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The colon

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To introduce a list

The colon can be used to introduce the items in a list.

Topics discussed will include: the structure of viruses, virus families and current concerns in virology.

Students joining the department undertake to: attend all lectures and tutorials, meet deadlines for written work and contribute to tutorials and seminars

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