There has been for some time a rampant misuse of list-style writing in articles of all kinds, online and off.
I hate them. Here’s why:
1. They tend to create article bloating. It used to be that you’d see 5 or 10 item lists. Now it’s in the dozens. As if list size was somehow related to the quality of the post. And it may be if the list contained great information, but in the drive to fill a 32 item list, any writer starts reaching for filler. There’s a list length arms race going on; you and I are the victims.
2. They relieve the writer from having to orchestrate a bunch of pieces into a cohesive whole, so it’s harder for the reader to get a sense of the writer’s personality. Even for purely informational writing, after a while all that bland information is like eating plain packing peanuts (the unflavored variety), which hinders information absorption. Writing is hard. Being lazy at anything that’s hard always produces the same result.
3. Part of the attraction of list-style writing is in implying a complete treatment of some topic. But they’re glib more often than not. The promise is that the writer has something you want, lots of it, so come on in. Sometimes it’s good information, but almost always, good or bad, it’s stretched too thin.
4. They degrade the relationship between reader and writer. What that glibness says to me is, “I desperately want your attention, but I’m not willing to work to keep it.” It’s a bizarre combination of desperation for, and rejection of the reader?
5. And the number 1 reason for hating list-style writing: it’s overuse has made it cliche. Good writing avoids cliche. Per 1 above, I’m not going to fill in 6-10 simply to have more in the list.
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Yes, yes, I know. Lists are easier to scan. Web text is more likely to be scanned by a reader. In itself that’s no reason to use list-style writing. You can still,
- use bullets, and
- other such web friendly formatting within any essay, post, or even a postcard.
List are definitely easier to come up with. But don’t be lazy, you’ll become a polluter.
10 Reasons Against List-style Articles
There has been for some time a rampant misuse of list-style writing in articles of all kinds, online and off.
I hate them. Here’s why:
1. They tend to create article bloating. It used to be that you’d see 5 or 10 item lists. Now it’s in the dozens. As if list size was somehow related to the quality of the post. And it may be if the list contained great information, but in the drive to fill a 32 item list, any writer starts reaching for filler. There’s a list length arms race going on; you and I are the victims.
2. They relieve the writer from having to orchestrate a bunch of pieces into a cohesive whole, so it’s harder for the reader to get a sense of the writer’s personality. Even for purely informational writing, after a while all that bland information is like eating plain packing peanuts (the unflavored variety), which hinders information absorption. Writing is hard. Being lazy at anything that’s hard always produces the same result.
3. Part of the attraction of list-style writing is in implying a complete treatment of some topic. But they’re glib more often than not. The promise is that the writer has something you want, lots of it, so come on in. Sometimes it’s good information, but almost always, good or bad, it’s stretched too thin.
4. They degrade the relationship between reader and writer. What that glibness says to me is, “I desperately want your attention, but I’m not willing to work to keep it.” It’s a bizarre combination of desperation for, and rejection of the reader?
5. And the number 1 reason for hating list-style writing: it’s overuse has made it cliche. Good writing avoids cliche. Per 1 above, I’m not going to fill in 6-10 simply to have more in the list.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
Yes, yes, I know. Lists are easier to scan. Web text is more likely to be scanned by a reader. In itself that’s no reason to use list-style writing. You can still,
List are definitely easier to come up with. But don’t be lazy, you’ll become a polluter.