Writing with bullets, a bit too much?
I have to admit that I find the book Writing in Bullets to be quite useful. It’s a good guide to writing concisely, and for using bullets effectively. Unfortunately, over the last few years I’ve been seeing bullets used to replace crisp, well-thought-out writing.
And that’s forced me to think about 1) how bullets should be used, 2) how bullets are used, and 3) how I use them when writing.
How bullets should be used
At least, as far as I’m concerned … Bullets should be used to:
- Summarize key points
- List action items
- Introduce concepts that will follow
- Link to subsequent headings in a piece of writing
Wherever possible, I try to keep bullet lists short — one to two lines; occasionally three. There should be no more than three to five bullets in a list. And I generally try to write complete sentences when building a bullet list. That way, a set of bullets doesn’t disrupt the flow of an article or a report or whatever I’m writing.
How I’ve seen bullets (mis-)used
Too often, I’ve seen bullets replace proper writing — mostly in the spheres of business and technical writing. There have been bulleted items that are paragraphs in themselves. I’ve seen lists that , and ones which use overly terse language; no pronouns, and sometimes with a or the missing. To me, that’s not just a misuse of bullets. It’s lazy writing.
On top of that, I’ve seen too many instances of bullet lists being overused. A paragraph, followed by a long list of bullets, followed by another paragraph or two, followed by yet another list. For page after page after page. I can understand the rationale behind doing something like that (breaking up long blocks of text), but the person who prepared the document should have thought about whether or not the items in the bullet list really needed to be in a bullet list.
How I use bullets when writing
While I try to use bullets in the ways I described a few paragraphs back, I’m not always successful. My usage tends to be a mix of how they should be used and how they’re misused. Fortunately, the misuse is limited — I sometimes prepare lists of more than five bullets, or a single bullet consists of more than three lines of text.
Still, it’s gotten me thinking about whether or not I use too many bullets in my writing. I’ll definitely have to keep an eye on that.
What is your opinion of using and abusing bullets in writing? Feel free to leave a comment.
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