Your personal preference: Do you omit the comma after i.e. and e.g.? Example: Martha said she needed her essentials (e.g. lipstick, eyeliner, and eye shadow). The Beatles have that distinction (i.e. they have the most number one records in chart history). Alternatively, I think a colon or a dash could work too. Do you concur? Martha said she needed her essentials: lipstick, eyeliner, and eye shadow. The Beatles have that distinction—they have the most number one records in chart history. Thank you.
i would never omit the comma after the latin abbreviations... it belongs there, since 'e.g' and 'i.e.' stand for what would be in english, 'for example' and 'that is,' if spelled out... each of which would need a following comma... and, if using a colon, the preferable separating mark would be a semicolon, rather than commas... yes, the em dash example is acceptable...
Sorry, dear. I don't know what you mean by 'and, if using a colon, the preferable separating mark would be a semicolon, rather than commas...'
items in a list following a colon are usually separated by semicolons, not commas, as in your example...
You meant like this? Martha said she needed her essentials: lipstick; eyeliner; and eye shadow. If this is what you meant, it appears as though commas are sufficient. This is a run-in sentence, not a vertical list.
I've never come across this rule before. I even looked through various academic grammar sites, and none of them mentioned anything about this. In fact, they all used commas to separate items in a list following a colon (assuming the items in the list were reasonably short and didn't have commas). Do you have a reference for this?
so much for having posted before i had my morning dose of green tea! as noted above, semicolons are properly used in a sentence, to separate items after a colon, only when any of the items include a comma, in order to avoid confusion... as in: Martha said she needed her essentials: lipstick; eyeliner, which was a "must"; and eye shadow. may i be forgiven?
