<xsl:template match="list/@type">
  ... cool code ...
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="list">
  do stuff for lists
</xsl:template>

<xsl:template match="list[@type='special']">
  do stuff for special lists
</xsl:template>

Cheers,
Wendell

Jackie,
If you want to write templates for common attributes, you can
distinguish them in two ways (XSLT 1.0).

1. use the mode attributes in the xsl:apply-templates and
xsl:template. This will single out the attribute for particular
transformation for each instance. In your case it would mean a
template for the list/@type attribute and one for each other
instance. You will need to think of your tranformation in catagories
(common transformation vs. uncommon). Use a general template for the
common, and particular templates for what is not common.

<xsl:apply-templates select="@type" mode="list_parent"/>

<xsl:template match="@type" mode="list_parent">
<!-- your cool code here for a list/@type transformation -->
</xsl:template>

2. You can get fancy by using a param and a single template for a
common attribute.

<xsl:apply-templates select="@type">
  <xsl:with-param name="parent_x" select="local-name()"/>
</xsl:apply-templates>

<xsl:template match="@type">
  <xsl:param name="parent_x"/>
  <xsl:choose>
    <xsl:when test="string($parent_x)='list'">
<!-- cool code here for list/@type -->
    </xsl:when>
    <xsl:otherwise>
<!-- cool code here for all the rest -->
    </xsl:otherwise>
  </xsl:choose>
</xsl:template>