Number One With a Bullet

Contrary to my expectations, I feel like I have benefited greatly from English 402. I have always enjoyed writing and thought that I would not really learn anything, but I was wrong. Though technical writing may not be the most enjoyable, it is an inevitable necessity, and I now feel much more prepared to communicate in a professional environment. Two of the most important tools I took from our weekly memo writing: titles and bullets.

Titles
Titles are an easy way to quickly convey the organization of your document to your audience. Simply by scanning through the headings, the reader can have a pretty comprehensive idea of what you are writing about. Who could have thought that simply using bold and/or enlarged text would be such a powerful tool?

Bullets
Bullets have multiple advantages in a technical document. When used appropriately they

• convey multiple ideas in a condensed format
  
• are easily identifiable on a cursory reading of the document
  
• organize ideas into a professional and comprehensible format
  

These techniques revolve around the idea that people are too busy in today's business environments to spend time to reading superfluous information. Do not use 5 words when 3 will do, and do not waste time writing long paragraphs when you could use a list or a table. You want to give your message efficiently and professionally, so avoid thinking that you are writing literature.