Using Lists and Bullet Points for Better Reading

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Lists and bullet points can be fantastic for organizing related ideas and helping people read what's written better. When used to organize related ideas, lists provide a structure and simplicity that can be easier to process than prose with subjects and nouns. Bullet points, in particular, have an agreed-upon meaning where each bullet point resembles each other and is related to the preceding sentence. This allows readers to skip the bullets if not relevant to them, while understanding that each bullet represents an independent and distinct idea.

Whatever you’re writing, Todd Rogers says most people are too busy to read it. That’s why, he says, “you want to make it as easy as possible for them."

Rogers is a professor of public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and the author of the book Writing for Busy Readers: Communicate More Effectively in the Real World. From text messages to fundraising letters to political speeches, Rogers says effective writing makes it “easy for busy readers to navigate what we send them, pull out the key information, and do what they are planning to do anyway, which is move on to the next thing.” This kind of writing, Rogers says, is “more effective for us, and kinder to readers.”

In this episode of Think Fast, Talk Smart, Rogers and host Matt Abrahams explore how to use structure, simplicity, and everyday vocabulary to write in a way that saves readers time and transmits ideas more effectively.

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