Thursday, 16 June 2022

How to Write Powerful Bullet Points...A Short Article from Grammarly

IMPORTANT. Bullet Points are often used by businesses but they are also highly valuable in connection with the development of Precision Universal Debate. Hence, the inclusion of the article below on this blog. RS








Any writer who’s spent time in the trenches publishing articles online knows it’s hard to keep a reader’s attention. In fact, according to Tony Haile’s 2014 article on Time.com, 55 percent of readers will spend fifteen seconds or less actively on a page reading the article that took you many times longer to write and carefully proofread. Like it or not, our online culture, which blasts us with a never-ending stream of content 24/7, has made us skimmers rather than deep readers




What’s a content creator to do? You could keep your content short, but there’s evidence that longer pieces get more social engagement and links. The key to writing articles that hold a reader’s attention is not to make them shorter but to make them more readable, and doing so requires expert organization that calls attention to key topics. There’s arguably no more useful organizational tool than the venerable bullet point.

How to write powerful bullet points

According to Copyblogger, “the essence of a great bullet is brevity + promise.” By using bullets, you’re demonstrating that you know how to be concise and cut to the chase. Then, you must deliver on that promise by making every point essential and impactful. Let’s demonstrate the power of bullet points with a list of tips for writing awesome ones:

  • Think of a bullet point as a mini headline. It needs to be concise and attention-grabbing in a way that intrigues readers and compels them to read more.
  • Highlight elements key to understanding the content of your article. There’s no room for fluff here, so call out what’s most important.
  • Keep it simple. Avoid complex outlines and don’t use sub-bullets if you can help it.
  • Keep bullets thematically related. Bullet points highlight key elements of very specific topics, so stay on a single track.
  • Make your bullet points symmetrical . . . just like the ones here. Notice how each point begins with a bolded directive and ends with a one-sentence explanation.
  • Work in keywords. Search engines tend to give bulleted lists a little more weight.
  • Don’t overdo it. You want your post to look like an article, not a grocery list.

What is a fascination?

A fascination is a copywriting technique for creating points that make your readers so intrigued (fascinated!) that they’re compelled to get more info. It’s a go-to marketing tactic you’ve no doubt seen in advertising. Let’s invent a make-believe product to show you how fascinations work.


The Amazing Party Animal Personality Enhancer!

Use this simple device during any social event and you’re virtually guaranteed to

  • develop killer dance moves
  • become the most entertaining person in the room
  • attract 180 percent more attention from potential love interests
  • increase your notoriety in your social circles by 83 percent

Okay, so this “personality enhancer” sounds too good to be true (or suspiciously like your favorite party beverage), but the points are compelling. Who doesn’t want to become an entertaining, attractive, well-known dancing machine?

The same technique can work well when you’re trying to get readers to spend more than fifteen seconds looking at your post. If it fits the tone of your article, frontload it with bulleted items that make compelling promises. You’re telling visitors that, if they take the time to read this article, they’ll get to know more about the fascinating topics you highlighted.

Grammar basics of using bullet points

Bullet points often create confusion for writers. Do you capitalize each one? Put periods at the end? When should you use numbers instead of bullets? It turns out that making your articles easy to read through the strategic use of bullet points requires a little know-how. Here are a few guidelines.

The introductory sentence

If the text introducing your list is a complete sentence, it should end with a colon. If it’s a fragment, forget the colon and jump straight into the list.

Numbers or bullets?

If your action items need to take place in a specific order, use a numbered list rather than bullets.

EXAMPLE:

Here’s how to give your dog a bath:

1 Place a shower cap on your dog’s head.

2 Give him his rubber ducky to provide emotional security.

3 Gently bathe your dog. Avoid getting water in his big sad eyes.

You could also use a numbered list if your introductory text promises a certain number of items, like the three best reasons to bathe your dog. (But do you really need reasons?)

Punctuation with bullet points

If the text of your bullet point is a complete sentence (or multiple sentences), use capital letters and punctuation. If your points are not structured as proper sentences, you don’t need to end with punctuation. Capitalization is a style choice—with sentence fragments, you can choose to start each with either upper- or lower-case letters.

The structure to use with bullet points

Don’t mix and match sentence structures. Your points should be consistent, either all sentences or all fragments.

Make sure the grammatical structure of your bullet points is parallel by starting each with the same part of speech. For instance, if you start one point with an adjective, start them all with an adjective.

CORRECT:

Adopting a dog will make you

  • popular with dog lovers
  • famous for having the most adorable pet on your block

INCORRECT:

Adopting a dog will make you

  • popular with dog lovers
  • you’ll be famous for having the most adorable pet on your block

Here’s a tip: Read each bullet point with the text that precedes it to make sure each one is parallel and makes sense as a sentence.

Using the correct example above, you would read:

“Adopting a dog will make you popular with dog lovers.”

But the incorrect example makes no sense as a sentence, so you know you need to edit:

“Adopting a dog will make you you’ll be famous for having the most adorable pet on your block.”

Keep your style consistent

Some of the bullet point style rules aren’t hard and fast. Unless you’re following a specific style guide (such as the AP Stylebook or The Chicago Manual of Style), use the style that looks best to you, but remember to keep it parallel and keep it consistent, because those things are non-negotiable. With a little precision, you’ll create bullet points that will catch your readers’ attention and keep them on the page so your carefully crafted words earn more than just fifteen seconds of their time.

Plain English Campaign

 

Plain English Campaign

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The Plain English Campaign (PEC) is a commercial editing and training firm based in the United Kingdom. Founded in 1979 by Chrissie Maher, the company is a world leader in plain-language advocacy, working to persuade organisations in the UK and abroad to communicate with the public in plain language. Maher was awarded the Order of the British Empire in 1994 for her services to plain communication.[1]

In 1990, PEC created the Crystal Mark, its seal of approval. This is a symbol printed on documents that it considers to be as clear as possible for the intended audience. The symbol appears on over 20,000 documents worldwide. They also give out the annual Foot in Mouth Award for "a baffling comment by a public figure"[2] and the Golden Bull Award for "the worst examples of written tripe".[3] Notable winners of the Foot in Mouth Award include Donald TrumpGeorge W. BushGordon BrownRichard Gere, and Donald Rumsfeld.

PEC has worked all over the world for companies and organisations including British Gas,[4] British Telecom,[5] Irish Life,[6] Telefónica O2[7] and the World Bowls association.[8] It has also worked with the majority of UK council and government departments. Many UK forms and bills carry the Crystal Mark, including the British passport application form.[9]

PEC is often described in the media as a pressure group,[10] and regularly makes public comment about language-related news stories, particularly jargon.[11] In 2008 it criticised a consultation document sent to residents living near Heathrow Airport.[12] The year before, it mocked signs put up by police in Hertfordshire that warned the public not to commit crime.[13]

In 2006 its supporters voted Bill Shankly the author of the greatest footballing quotation of all time.[14] A 2004 survey revealed that "At the end of the day" was considered the most irritating cliché.[15]

Famous supporters of PEC include Margaret Thatcher[16] and broadcaster John Humphrys.[17]

PEC has been criticised by writer Oliver Kamm, who wrote: "The joke – not that it's funny – is that a body ostensibly concerned with clarity of language is both incompetent in its own use of English and heedless of the task it sets itself."[18]

A different point of view was given by Tom McArthur, editor of The Oxford Companion to the English Language, who said, "In all the history of the language, there has never been such a powerful grassroots movement to influence it as Plain English Campaign."[19]

In 2011 PEC criticised the Met Office for using the phrase "probabilities of precipitation" instead of "rain is likely". The Met Office responded by explaining that precipitation does not mean only rain. A Met Office spokesman said: "Precipitation covers a wide range of stuff falling from the sky including rain, sleet, snow, hail, drizzle, and even cats and dogs – but sums it up in just one word."[20]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ "No. 53527"The London Gazette. 1993-12-31. p. 13.
  2. ^ "Bush leaves White House with Lifetime Achievement Award from Plain English Campaign"Plain English Campaign. www.plainenglish.co.uk. 2008. Archived from the original on February 16, 2009. Retrieved 2009-05-15.
  3. ^ "PEC Awards"Plain English Campaign. www.plainenglish.co.uk. 2008. Archived from the original on 2009-04-20. Retrieved 2009-05-15.
  4. ^ British Gas, [1] Archived 2012-02-12 at the Wayback Machine "British Gas website"
  5. ^ BT Today, "Help site is crystal clear" Archived 2009-06-16 at the Wayback Machine "Bttoday newslist", January 18, 2008.
  6. ^ Irish Life, "Irish Life case study" Archived 2008-09-10 at the Wayback Machine "Case study", December 2006.
  7. ^ Laurence Wardle, "Ofcom review of alternative dispute resolution schemes" Archived 2008-09-10 at the Wayback Machine "Report and draft recommendations", 4 October 2005.
  8. ^ World Bowls, "Laws of the sport of bowls" Archived 2011-04-09 at the Wayback Machine "World Bowls", 2006.
  9. ^ Cabinet Office, "The Six Service Standards for Central Government" Archived 2008-09-08 at the Wayback Machine, "The Six Service Standards for Central Government", July 2001.
  10. ^ Paul Majendie, "George Bush loses close run for Foot in Mouth" Archived 2009-06-16 at the Wayback MachineReuters, 11 December 2007.
  11. ^ Anna Lagerkvist, "ID theft special: is jargon confusing computer users?" Archived 2007-12-10 at the Wayback Machine"Digital Home", 21 October 2006
  12. ^ UK Airport News,"MP and Plain English Campaign back calls to extend Heathrow consultation" Archived 2008-12-17 at the Wayback Machine "Heathrow Airport news", 23 January 2008.
  13. ^ BBC News "Police mocked for 'obvious' signs" Archived2009-01-29 at the Wayback Machine "BBC News website", 13 September 2007.
  14. ^ Sky News (July 7, 2006), What's The Best Football Quote Ever?, archived from the original on December 23, 2009, retrieved February 8, 2008
  15. ^ BBC News, "Campaign's call to ditch cliches" Archived2008-12-12 at the Wayback Machine "BBC News website", 24 March 2004.
  16. ^ [Margaret Thatcher, "Plain English Campaign" D. E. Ager, Ideology and Image: Britain and Language], May 2003.
  17. ^ BBC Press Office, "John Humphrys" Archived 2009-11-26 at the Wayback Machine "Biographies", December 2004
  18. ^ Kamm, Oliver (March 24, 2004), Plain English Baloney IIarchived from the original on May 10, 2011, retrieved January 17, 2011
  19. ^ "Plain speaking is no joke"BBC News. BBC. 10 December 1997. Archived from the original on 5 January 2011. Retrieved 30 September 2010.
  20. ^ "Plain English award for Met Office 'gobbledygook'"BBC News. 9 December 2011. Archived from the original on 25 September 2015. Retrieved 8 February 2014.

External links[edit]

Welcome to Precision Universal Debate

  IMPORTANT Though the title of this p2p entry is the Universal Debating Project (at present) it has now been re-named the Precision Univers...