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Subject:Re: Bulleted lists... Is there a limit? From:Hillary Jones <hillary -at- NICHIMEN -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 25 Jul 1997 09:53:59 -0700
DWeber wrote:
>
> What is the maximum amount of items acceptable in a bulleted list? Is
> there a definite answer? My interviewer thought so.
There's the old chunking adage: the human brain can only store 7 items,
plus or minus 2, in short-term memory. That's supported with research
that you could probably dredge up in a tech writing text (unfortunately
I can't remember exactly where I read that). So some people might think
the "right" answer to the max in a bulleted list is 9--maybe that's what
the interviewer was fishing for.
Then there's the tech writer's best friend, common sense. That says you
wouldn't want a bulleted list to be pages and pages long.
--
******************************
Hillary Jones
hillary -at- nichimen -dot- com
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