Commandment VIII: Suffer Not Tables, Bullets and Numbered Lists, For they are as Lillies- They Spoil Easily

Scot Witt, Monday, September 3, 2007 @ 11:25 am

Ever see a bulleted list with one sub-step?

My teeth gnash. Literally. This is almost as bad as your boss writing 'your' when s/he means you're. ARGH!

Here are the rules. I've never had to break these, except for wikis:

• Use a numbered list to show sequence or order.
• If you use a numbered list, fer gosh sakes, pick a consistent numbering system for sub-items. Wikis exempted, of course since most wiki numbering systems pretty much suck. I should amend that. The ones I've used suck.
• Use a bulleted list for any list of two or more. This shows an association between the items in your list.
• I know. You have 45 levels of information you have  to have displayed in relation. Wrong. Good technical writers will tell you if you go below two levels you pretty much lost your reader... sometimes you simply have to use three, but never ever more than that. Split your content up if you need additional layers. Combine the layers. But do not go over three levels, ever. Even in your Table of Contents. No one reads past two or three anyway.
• Never, ever place a 'widowed' list sub-item- stick it with its parent either by using a conjunction (and, but, or; if you're writing for executives, however) or using a period and adding the outlier as a separate sentence. Setting an outlier as a sub-item, all by itself, is for the unschooled.
• Consider using a table for more than three (3) items.
• Always use a table for five (5) or more items. Yeah, yeah, I know. If you graduated from Information Mapping 101, the magic number is seven (7). That's fine, but have a limit in your head so the rest of us can read what you wrote.

The whole idea is to organize and display the information so your reader can easily spot it, read it and digest it.

Lists and tables help a great deal on the other end of the communication process. The reader may not know it, but you've shown sequence, order, association or massive detail just by properly organizing it.

Like my wife, a cheap date.

Did I say that out loud?

Next up: Pomposity and You.

Powered by ScribeFire.

tech development

Comments

• Leave a comment
• Comment feed for this post
• TrackBack URL

None so far.

Leave a comment