The List: A Surprising Reason it’s a Good Content Writing Tool 

Award-winning writer Kathy Widenhouse has helped hundreds of nonprofits and writers produce successful content and has gained 600K+ views for her writing tutorials. She is the author of 9 books. See more of Kathy’s content here.

An online devotional for writers

A Word From The Word

May I never forget the good things he does for me. (Psalm 103:2 NLT)

A Word For Writers

A list is a good content writing tool.

I use lists as a set of bullets on a web page, in a series of subheads in an article, and in a sequence as part of a sentence (like this one). Lists allow me to organize my content logically.

Here’s a surprise from the other side of the coin: a list is good for your readers, too. Research bears this out. Your reader is bombarded with information. She wants to act on it but is afraid she’ll forget what to do. She gets anxious. She begins to feel overwhelmed.

But when the content is set up as a list, the reader has a way to process it.  In an information-saturated world, a list helps prevents the additional anxiety of mental cataloguing.

That’s why a list is a good content writing tool: it takes the pressure off of the reader. She doesn’t have to sort out the information. The list does the sorting! She is freed up to use the information.

God graciously sprinkled lists throughout scripture to help us sort information.

• He listed genealogies so we can remember how He worked through people.
• He listed the 10 Commandments, the spiritual gifts, and the fruit of the Spirit so we understand ways He works.
• He told us to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength so we’d have different ways to grow.

I’m so glad that God modeled list-making. I never want to forget what He has done for me and I need those reminders. Your readers do, too. What about you?

A Wise Word

A list is a good content writing tool. (Click to tweet.)

A Word To Pray

Loving Father,

Thank you for giving me lists. I never want to forget what You’ve done for me and I always want to keep learning what You want me to do next. Let me use lists as a good content writing tool for my readers.

In Jesus’s name, Amen.

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