Quick tip: Make every bullet count
There’s nothing like a set of bullets to make a list easy to scan.
But are your bulleted lists as sharp as they could be?
Here are four tips to help make every bullet count.
Tip 1: Order bullets for quick scanning
It’s obvious how to arrange a set of bullets, right?
You put the most important point first and the least important last. Right?
Nope.
In fact, years of research in eye tracking proved people don’t see lists the way writers think they do.
People reading on-screen skim, scan, and skip… often right past the middle bullets in a list! But they usually take in the very last point.
So it’s best to order your bullets to match the way readers process them:
- Most important point first
- Second most important point
- Less important points (readers may skip)
- Third most important point last
Tuck the weakest item in the middle, not at the end.
In other words, end your bullets with a bang!
Tip 2: Write every bullet in parallel
Bullets are most effective when every item is expressed in the same form. This is called parallel construction.
For example, consider this short list:
- Always do first things first.
- It’s important to do the second thing after the first.
- Last things should be left until last.
All the information is there. But it’s expressed in a disorganized way, so readers have to work extra hard to decode it.
This list works better when each item is expressed in the same way at roughly the same length:
- Do the first thing first.
- Do the second thing next.
- Then do the last thing.
See how the parallel version is much faster and easier to read?
Tip 3: Avoid the Russian Novel Syndrome
Did you ever read a story where everyone’s name starts with the same letter?
In War and Peace, there are characters with family names Karagina, Karataev, Kaysarov, Kochubey, Komarov, Kondratyevna, Konovnitsyn, Kozlovsky, and on and on.
It’s the dreaded Russian Novel Syndrome.
Avoid that in your bulleted lists. Make sure every item starts with a different word and even a different letter.
You don’t want to see a list like this:
- Conduct your inventory
- Create one thing
- Create another thing
- Count all your things
- Create that other thing
For anyone scanning through on-screen, all those words start to blur together.
That means none of your points stand out or are easy to remember.
Tip 4: Rewrite bullets, just like text
Your first draft of a list of bullets will not be perfect.
I know mine aren’t.
Even for this short article, I juggled the order of the bullets and added and subtracted items several times before I was done.
So don’t be afraid to rewrite and tweak your bullets.
It’s worth the effort. Even the busiest readers will likely take in the start and end of your list of bullets.
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