Disconnected pointsД«ullet points do exactly the same thing in writing. But the listener can only hear disconnected taps. To you, it seems utterly obvious that youвЂ™re tapping out a well-known tune. You will be amazed at how few people can correctly guess the song youвЂ™re tapping out вЂ“ experiments find that listeners guess correctly only around 3 per cent of the time. Think of a famous tune and tap it out to a friend or colleague. A classic demonstration of this is for one person to tap out a familiar tune (like вЂHappy birthdayвЂ™ or their national anthem) with their finger and then ask another person to guess the song. The illusion of transparency is the mistaken idea that whatever is going on in our own heads is obvious to other people. The reality: This often doesnвЂ™t work, largely because of what psychologists call the illusion of transparency. Your reader just takes in each idea, one by one. By breaking your argument into separate bullet points, you can make it easy to understand.

The theory: When you have a complex argument or analysis to explain, bullet points are a great idea. One way that using bullets can badly misfire is when the author uses them to present an argument. And when theyвЂ™re used in the wrong context, theyвЂ™re anything but easy to understand. TheyвЂ™ve been around since the 80s, so they no longer automatically make a document look particularly modern. Unfortunately, in practice, bullet points can do the exact opposite. Perhaps youвЂ™re trying to create a document thatвЂ™s snappy, easy to understand, and that looks clean and modern. You can start out with good intentions when you use them вЂ“ youвЂ™re probably trying to make life easier for your readers.

Bullets are designed to call out key points and help the reader scan large amounts of information.

Fine bullet points for word