Clients often ask me, “What do you think about bullet lists?” The question usually comes when they are writing a proposal or a tender, or copywriting a website or brochure. They come to read their work, only to realise it’s full of endless bullet lists.
I find B2B documents with lots of bullet lists hard to read and tend to skim over them. By zoning out, I probably miss some key messages.
Yet bullet points are great when they are used well. Here are 5 tips to make your bullets more readable.
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Turn a bullet list into numbered list, just like this one. Numbers make the list seem more important, and more likely to be read.
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Put a box around the bullet points, with or without shading, or just use shading. Highlighting your bullet points makes them stand out for your readers.
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Bold or underline some of the key words for emphasis and to attract your readers’ attention.
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Make each bullet point a stand-alone sentence so your readers get the message quickly. It saves them having to refer back to the lead-in sentence.
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Start each bullet point with a verb in the present tense, where possible. That’s what I've done in this list. It’s punchier and faster to read.
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