First ..., second ..., third ..., points within a sentence.

[HK Girl]

Within a sentence I want to add numbers, eg. first, second, third, is it ok to do this within a sentence or should I use bullet points. Would it be ok if I used a semi-colon after each number e.g. first; ..... second; etc, is this correct? I don't want the passage to be to formal, as its just a newsletter or sorts.
Thanks

 

[elroy]

Welcome to the forums.

Can we see the sentence?

 

[Victoria32]

Within a sentence I want to add numbers, eg. first, second, third, is it ok to do this within a sentence or should I use bullet points. Would it be ok if I used a semi-colon after each number e.g. first; ..... second; etc, is this correct? I don't want the passage to be to formal, as its just a newsletter or sorts.
Thanks

Hello, HK Girl...
Using bullet points might mean it becomes something other than a sentence - that is, a list, thus...
* there are seven cats entered in the show
* each entry requires a photgraph
and so on.
But to make it a sentence, you would say
"Here is the information for next month's cat show: First, there are seven cats entered, second, each entry requires a photograph.
It might be better to go with a bullet point list, if there are a lot of items...

 

[panjandrum]

Your sentence is probably going to be very long.
Better to write several sentences and avoid the problem completely.

If you are simply listing things it may be better to list them without first, second, third, ...

You see, it all depends on the sentence - as Elroy suggested.

 

[HK Girl]

Thanks for the response
The sentence starts, first, the children .blah blah.... second, show what blah blah... third, take the child blah blah.... Would it be better to bullet point them to make them stand out or as I said before just use a ; to separate them.