The Power of Writing with Lists: Enhancing Ideas and Communication

1. Writing with lists

2. Why Writers Use Lists • Get a sense of setting or character • Convey factual information succinctly • Organize, arrange and emphasize ideas • Make work easier to read and recall • Preview and summarize ideas • Compile history • Gather evidence • Present arguments • Present agenda

3. Examples of Lists in Writing • “He called her a melon, a pineapple, an olive tree, an emerald, and a fox in the snow all in the space of three seconds.” from Orlando: A Biography, by Virginia Woolf • "Her speech was an endlessly interesting, swerving path of old punch lines, heartfelt cris de coeur, puns new and old, dramatic true confessions, challenges, witty one-liners, wee Scotticisms, tag lines from Frank Sinatra songs, obsolete mountain nouns, and moral exhortations.“ Annie Dillard, An American Childhood • "What a jovial and a merry world would this be, may it please your worships, but for that inextricable labyrinth of debts, cares, woes, want, grief, discontent, melancholy, large jointures, impositions and lies!“ Laurence Sterne, TristramShandy