How to use bullet points in your writing
Are you using bulleted lists effectively to organise information?
Editing/proofreading more than 70 ‘For Dummies’ books has instilled in me a great appreciation for the humble bullet point, which is used prolifically in the brand’s guides. Why? Because, quite simply, the bulleted list makes text clear, concise and organised.
Knowing when (and when not) to use bullet points
Bullets work well in most written material, improving readability and logical structuring of ideas. You can use bullets when you have two or more points to make on a theme, when you need to break up text and when you want to draw the reader’s attention.
Bullets are great for crisp, clear, friendly communication. They’re a little informal, though, so you don’t often see them in formal writing. If you’re writing an academic book or paper, check with your publisher or supervisor whether bullets are acceptable.
Finally, if your points are sequential – for example, they outline a series of steps to follow – then don’t use bullets. Use a numbered list instead (to which all the following guidance applies).
Introducing bullet points
Introduce the bullet points in the preceding body text; don’t just launch right into them, or the reader will be disorientated.
Usually, the introductory sentence ends with a colon, to lead into the points.
There are four countries in the UK:
England
Wales
Scotland
Northern Ireland
When the introductory sentence flows on into the first bullet, you can omit the colon if you prefer, though most writers keep it.
A headache can be caused by
Tiredness
Stress
Illness
Capitalising bullet points
Complete sentences always begin with a capital letter.
Babies cry because:
They’re tired.
They’re hungry.
They need a nappy change.
If the bullet point isn’t a full sentence, it’s your choice whether to capitalise the first word. You can write either of the following:
A monkey’s diet includes:
Fruits
Vegetables
Seeds
Leaves
A monkey’s diet includes:
fruits
vegetables
seeds
leaves
Most of the publishers and organisations I work with opt to capitalise, as do I, but there’s no absolute rule. Just make sure you’re consistent with whichever style you choose.
Punctuating bullet points
A sentence needs a full stop. If each bullet point in your list is a sentence, then each bullet point needs a full stop.
Some key facts about Marie Curie:
She discovered polonium and radium.
Her work on radioactivity was ground-breaking.
She was the first woman to win a Nobel Prize.
A sentence fragment doesn’t need a full stop.
You can reduce your carbon footprint by:
Eating less meat
Recycling your waste
Walking rather than driving
However, if the sentence fragment is long or complex, you can opt to use a full stop.
The curriculum covers:
Maths: Addition, subtraction, division, multiplication and fractions.
English: Sentence structure, parts of speech, punctuation, vocabulary and spelling.
Some writers prefer to use semi-colons in a bulleted list and a full stop at the end.
The top London visitor attractions are:
Buckingham Palace;
the Tower of London;
Madame Tussauds; and
the London Eye.
This is a more formal approach, and it’s fine. Given that we use bullet points in the spirit of simplifying text, however, I prefer to only use punctuation where essential.
Finally, what if your bulleted list contains a mixture of sentences and fragments? In that case, you need to rewrite to make the points parallel (see the next section).
Making bullet points parallel
The items in a bulleted list need to have a parallel structure. The following list is a jumble:
Sandra had four aims:
To sell her house
Moving to the seaside
Learn to swim
She wanted to be a writer.
This version has a parallel structure:
Sandra had four aims:
To sell her house
To move to the seaside
To learn to swim
To be a writer
See how each item in the list matches the others in terms of structure? You may find the repetition of ‘to’ in these bullets unnecessary, however…
Avoiding repetition in bullet points
Sometimes we repeat words at the start of every bullet point for emphasis. Often, though, it’s best to write as simply as possible, and that means avoiding repetition. For example:
Reasons to go to university:
You want to become a specialist in a subject.
You want to gain a higher qualification.
You want to meet new people.
You can recast this list to avoid the repetition:
Reasons to go to university:
Become a specialist in a subject
Gain a higher qualification
Meet new people
Ordering bullet points
Sometimes the order of the bullet points needs to make logical sense. For example, say you’re putting together a bulleted list of 20th-century British monarchs. You could write:
Edward VII (1901–1910)
Edward VIII (1936)
George V (1910–1936)
George VI (1936–1952)
Elizabeth II (1952–2022)
Victoria (1837–1901)
But surely the more logical approach is to arrange the list in chronological order:
Victoria (1837–1901)
Edward VII (1901–1910)
George V (1910–1936)
Edward VIII (1936)
George VI (1936–1952)
Elizabeth II (1952–2022)
You may also arrange a list in order of importance, or in alphabetical order, but only where there’s an obvious reason to do so. If the list is just a random collection of points, then a random order is fine.
Starting with a key word
You may start a bulleted list with a key word or term. You can style this to stand out using bold or italics.
Hospital birth: This is the most common choice for pregnant women; about 94 per cent of mums have their babies in hospital.
Hospital birth: This is the most common choice for pregnant women; about 94 per cent of mums have their babies in hospital.
You may also emphasise the key sentence at the start of a bullet.
Here are my top tips for proofreading:
Find a quiet space. Reading in a café with easy access to coffee and cake is tempting, but all that noise isn’t going to help you focus.
Read the text aloud. Doing this forces you to slow down and read what’s really on the page, rather than what you think you’ve written.
Using sub-bullet points
Occasionally, you may need to expand on a point in your bulleted list, in which case you can use sub-bullet points.
There are three Star Wars trilogies:
The original trilogy:
Star Wars (1977)
The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
Return of the Jedi (1983)
The prequel trilogy:
The Phantom Menace (1999)
Attack of the Clones (2002)
Revenge of the Sith (2005)
The sequel trilogy:
The Force Awakens (2015)
The Last Jedi (2017)
The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
Use sub-bullets sparingly, and ideally for short points only; otherwise, the reader can get lost. In the example here, you could avoid the sub-bullets.
There are three Star Wars trilogies:
The original trilogy: Star Wars (1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Return of the Jedi (1983).
The prequel trilogy: The Phantom Menace (1999), Attack of the Clones (2002) and Revenge of the Sith (2005).
The sequel trilogy: The Force Awakens (2015), The Last Jedi (2017) and The Rise of Skywalker (2019).
If you find you keep needing sub-bullets, consider whether the bullet points in your list would work better as sections/subsections in your chapter. Then your sub-bullets will simply become bullets.
And if you find yourself hitting that Tab key and turning a first-level sub-bullet into a second-level one (a sub-sub-bullet, if you like), I encourage you to step back and rethink how you’re structuring your writing.
Essential kit for artists:
Paints:
Oils
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Watercolours:
Pans
Pencils
Tubes:
Daler-Rowney
Winsor & Newton:
Red
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Blue:
Winsor Blue
Cerulean Blue
Phthalo Turquoise:
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An extreme example, but you get my point. The writing has descended into a fragmented list.
Remember: bullets are great for readability, but a little goes a long way.