Bullet Lists Help Organize to Hit Your Target
Bullet Lists Help Organize Your Ideas
Sometimes a bullet list helps readers understand the material more easily than writing in paragraph form.
I'm sure you've seen a bullet list. Writers use them to group ideas together under a heading. Each item within the list begins with a large dot in front of it. That dot draws attention and helps your eye move from one point to the next.
People tend to scan websites looking for the information they need. Reading many paragraphs might work for some information, but often our readers will scan and target just what they seek.
That's where bullet lists come in.
They keep the reader's focus and allow them to find just what they want. It's a bit like a table of contents within your article. Maybe a bit like the condensed version of a book.
Let's consider some of the uses for these bullet lists.
Tips for using bullet lists
T\ips for writing an efficient bullet list include:
- Write a strong headline that groups connected items together.
- Format each bullet point the same way. This includes using the same font and margin before the point.
- Use the same part of speech at the beginning of the bullet point.
- Keep the bullet points brief. One, maybe two sentences is best in most cases.
See what I did there? I created the bullet list above to provide an example. Did it grab your attention?
Should you Include punctuation in bullet lists?
Yes or No. But not both.
In other words, keep it consistent. If you use punctuation in one point, you need to include it in all. If you choose to list sentence fragments, no punctuation is needed. The choice is yours.
Here’s an example of an inconsistent bullet list.
Some interesting things about my dogs are:
- They like to get up early.
- Need frequent grooming
- They stay close to me
Notice the problems? It lacks consistency.
The first sentence is a complete sentence with punctuation. The second is a fragment. My third sentence is a complete sentence but no punctuation.
The correct version would be the following example.
Some interesting things about my dogs are:
- They like to get up early.
- My dogs need frequent grooming.
- They stay close to me.
Bullets or Numbers?
I use bullet points more often than numbers. However, when the order matters, such as in a recipe, a numbered list is more appropriate.
If order does not matter, use bullet points.
When order matters, use numbered points.
Bullet Journaling and Planning
You may already be using bullets for journals and planning without even knowing it is a thing!
These begin with a blank page and feature whatever you need to organize or plan. You might use them to plan your day, month, or even the year. Consider using them to jot down future ideas or to track those creative sparks that writers depend on.
While our article writing should be done in a specific manner, our personal planning offers more individual creativity.
Your personal bullet planner is yours to create!
Recent Comments
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I used pullet points too for my new article this morning. Me too, I like complete sentences so I wrote all of them with complete sentences. I posted a screen shot of some ideas from an affiliate site, then noticed that they were written in fragment. Now because of that screen shot my whole article looks inconsistent. I bad part about it is that I wrote almost 2K words and going back and changing..... Ahh it kills me..
Thank you for sharing, Diane! Great points!
I understand the need for consistency. But sometimes it's ok to have a slightly different type (fragments to complete) if you are using a screenshot, for instance.
All the best-
Diane
Ohh, cool! then I am okay I guess.
Thank you very much for the reply back, Diane! I appreciate your untiring help and supports.
Thanks for this information, Diane. I tried using bullet points with my post but for some reason the spacings are either too close or too wide. I didn't know how to fix it so I ended up using > to create a uniform spacing between my lists. I'm not even sure if it's okay but published it anyway. 😁
If it looks good once published, I wouldn't worry about it. There are ways to adjust the spacing, too.
Don't worry, Diane. I will probably figure it out myself. If not, I'll just stick to using >, I think it's fine 😁
Hi Diane, I agree that bullet lists are very important visually within our site blogs and make the information we are giving to our readers stand out in a different way than if we are just writing paragraphs.
But, a problem I have encountered is when trying to add images next to or around the bullet lists, they seem to go everywhere and I spend more time editing to make the post look good than I spend writing the content itself!!
Does anyone else have this problem or is it just me??
That can be quite troublesome, Nick. I use the Divi theme which is easier to organize but sometimes I just don't have the time to do all I want with it.
I also find I spend a lot of time searching for just the right images to use. I have a Shutterstock account, so have access to many. Maybe too many, in fact.
It's a process, I suppose.
Very true Diane, I will maybe try out a different theme or have a look into Shutterstock.
Thanks for the advice my friend.
So true Diane, I switched from Elemento to Divi due to some of these reasons in the site am currently working on. Much easier to organize
Be aware, though, that once you use Divi, it isn't easy to change to others. Divi is so easy to use after you learn the methods (and has a very good tutorial/reference online) that it makes other themes seem clunky or less versatile. (my opinion, yours may differ)
It's my go-to theme for the foreseeable future.
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Love the post, Diane.
I'm a big fan of bullet lists, and I use them often - Both in my articles and in my journal.
Personally, I think it is much easier to find the information I'm looking for in the article, when the article is neat and tidy- as when using bullet lists.
Thanks for the great post.
Cathy
They are quite useful, aren't they, Cathy!
Thank you!