Editing Principle 11: Be Wary of Lists

Many nonprofessional writers pepper their writing with lists. I don’t mean bullet points — that’s a whole other subject — but these types of phrases:

“flounder, fail, or seldom perform at their best”

or

“authenticity, nostalgia, innovation and issues of sustainability”

The hope seems to be that if one item in a list doesn’t grab a reader’s lapels, the next one will. Or perhaps the writer subconsciously thinks that by saying, in essence, “consider this and this and that and that thing too,” they make less of a commitment, less of a splash, and expose themselves less than if they wrote “consider this, this one thing.”

And to that extent, they are correct. Readers’ eyes can glaze over after the third list item, and if they’re not paying close attention . . . well, there’s no commitment on either side.

Thing is, trying to cover all bases can compromise rather than enhance your authority. So part of the editing process consists of asking the types of questions that help writers isolate what’s most important to them, then sitting there with this one thing on the table, and staring at it awhile.

One pleasant side-effect of this process is increased confidence and conviction. It’s the written equivalent of losing the “up-speak” that makes it sound as if you’re asking a question.