Hard returns vs semicolons when entering stuff into ERAS

[JoshSt]

When I enter things on a list into ERAS in professional organizations, awards, and hobbies I list it using hard returns, like:

Most Awesome Person Award
Cured Cancer Award
Nobel Peace Prize

but it shows up like this with 2 spaces in between:

Most Awesome Person Award Cured Cancer Award Nobel Peace Prize

Is there any way to make it show the returns or should I use semicolons or something else to make it look better -- e.g.,

Most Awesome Person Award; Cured Cancer Award; Nobel Peace Prize

Advice is appreciated, thanks.

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[Knightmd]

I always used the second way, after seeing how it showed up when using hard returns. Not sure why you'd even start a thread about it. The process if full of much bigger questions.

 

[colbgw02]

Well, depending how much of a grammarian you want to be, semi-colons should not be used to make a list. That's what commas are for. The exception is if entries in that list already contain a comma, like dates or cities with their states.

E.g., on this trip, we'll be visiting Des Moines, Iowa; Boise, Idaho; and Portland, Oregon.

 

[mcl]

Well, depending how much of a grammarian you want to be, semi-colons should not be used to make a list. That's what commas are for. The exception is if entries in that list already contain a comma, like dates or cities with their states.

E.g., on this trip, we'll be visiting Des Moines, Iowa; Boise, Idaho; and Portland, Oregon.

True enough, but the issue is ease of legibility for the reviewer. If the hard return doesn't work in the new web-based ERAS, then I think semicolon separates the list elements better than a comma. But it's not a huge difference--programs will get the idea no matter what you use.

 

[JoshSt]

True enough, but the issue is ease of legibility for the reviewer. If the hard return doesn't work in the new web-based ERAS, then I think semicolon separates the list elements better than a comma. But it's not a huge difference--programs will get the idea no matter what you use.

I do think the semi-colons are more appropriate than commas in this context for this quoted reason and because listing things within some of the categories (e.g., awards, professional societies, and hobbies/interests) is somewhat conversational. The examples I listed in my original post were to be silly but their lengths are based off things I do plan to list in ERAS. Another example is trying to squeeze in a mini-description of what (if anything) you did in the different societies (e.g., Student Member of American Medical Association -- Served on the so and so committee; Student Member of the American College of Physicians -- Served as the regional this or that; Medical Society of Local Geography -- Served as the club's corn pipe cleaner; club 3 with mini description; club 4; etc).