Edward Tufte's discussion board has a good thread on
using bullet lists.
While I generally try to emulate Tufte's style (his motto is "Don't get
it original, get it right") I have been guilty of overuse of bullet
points in the past.
Michael Buschmohle deftly makes his point for numbered lists by using
a numbered list:
In school we didn't learn to bullet, we learned to count. Numbering items in lists is more natural most of the time
Scott Zetlan sums up this topic wonderfully:
Bullets are conclusions. They don't introduce new information, they summarize previously discussed points. Thus bullet text is a poor medium for delivering a presentation, the bulk of which is alleged to be new information for the participants.
Reading this dicussion, it's clear that bullet points do have a role to
play, but the should be avoided in general. The typical Power Point use of
bullet points is nothing short of bullet point abuse.
In summary:
- Use bullet points sparingly
- Numbered lists are usually better because they give everything a name
- Bullets should be used for conclusions or to show data the audience already knows.
Advertising Doesn't Work; PR Does
Joel wrote
an article about how
advertisements no longer work. I posted this response in the
less-flaming discussion group:
Advertisers are well aware of the fact that advertisements do not work.
Joel linked to a book on PR by a PR firm.
If you want to see the more dastardly side of PR, you should read "Toxic
Sludge Is Good For You" by the good folks at PR Watch: http://www.prwatch.org
It details how PR advertising works and techniques. They know that
"consumers" (aka, you and me) don't trust advertising any more. So they
try to create fake grass roots campains (this is known as "astro-turfing")
and plant news stories which are run completely uncredited but mostly
unedited.
In short, after you read this book, you will be amazed at the amount of
"news" which is planted directly from advertisers.
It's worth checking out from your library or picking up at your local
bookstore. You owe it to yourself to read this book. There's more
information and excerpts available here: http://www.prwatch.org/books/tsigfy.html