I happened to read two stimulating columns last week. Tiina Raevaara’s ”List Journalism for Recent Grads” amused me in the sense that I too am weary of “Five Ways to Avoid X” and “Six Keys to Win Y”—even though I have used this formula myself. Taking things to the extreme, one fitness magazine featured lists in every single article for an entire year. Apparently we would not on our own come up with “Six Ways to Enhance Your Workout” (like “if someone’s using the equipment you want, move on to something else”). Textbooks and manuals often include random items arrayed in lists; Raevaara states that by using lists writers don’t need to explain why they’ve included the items chosen. I’ve been browsing some textbooks that are based completely on lists—the connection between topics is left to the reader to deduce for himself. Even web-writers are encouraged to list things to make the content easier to skim, and certain sites sometimes consist only of bullets. However, lists improve readability only if the items are brief and the list itself is short.
The second interesting column was written by Jarkko Tontti, who said the world is incomprehensible and tangled. People make sense of it by arranging facts in ways that please them. Lists are one way to control chaotic material—or at least to create the feeling of control.