How do you do seriation?
Answer
How you do serration is dependent on how you are writing the paper. It can be done as separate paragraphs or within a paragraph.
You can use numbers, bullet points, letters, or commas to identifying your series. Number can sometimes be perceived as giving precedence to one point (i.e. if it the point identified as "1" therefore it must be the most important point). Use of bullet points can eliminate this emphasis.
You are going to want to browse pp. 63-64 of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th edition for all possible examples. Here are three.
"Separate paragraphs in a series, such as itemized conclusions or steps in a procedure, are identified by an Arabic numeral followed by a period but not enclosed in or followed by parentheses. Separate sentences in a series are also identified by an Arabic numeral followed by a period; the first word is capitalized, and the sentence ends with a period or correct punctuation.
Using the learned helplessness theory, we predicted that the depressed and nondepressed participants would make the following judgements of control:
1. Individuals who ... [paragraph continues].
2 Nondepressed persons exposed to ... [paragraph continues]."
Here is the list with bullet points.
- Individuals who ... [paragraph continues].
- Nondepressed persons exposed to [paragraph continues].
Here is a list in a paragraph.
"Within a paragraph or sentence, identify elements in a series by lowercase letters in parentheses.
The participant's three choices were (a) working with another participant, (b) working with a team, and (c) working alone."
These three examples were from p. 63-64 of the APA manual. There are a few more examples which I did not list.