Why I love Brian Clark
- Is it because he knows how to make his reports go viral?
- Is it because he can teach me how to set up a quality, monetized coaching site?
- Is it because he chose to write about the butterfly effect on Blog Action Day?
I love all those things – but they’re not the reason I love the copyblogger.
No, I love him because he writes about the importance of parallelism in bullet points.
Yep, parallelism.
- The same part of speech
- The same sense and meaning
- The same grammatical form
“Symmetrical” he might say.
Sweet music to my ears.
I decided things were getting a bit too blogging serious round here so I’m going to try and inject some more fun stuff over the weekends. (What do you mean parallelism isn’t fun? It is for me!) All in the interests of experimentation you understand – and keeping my motivation high.
More on bullet points and clarity next week.
I love parallelism, too! Too many people don't seem to understand the concept and it drives me nuts to see unparallel lists.
Posted by: Carol | October 20, 2007 at 12:41 PM
I think parallelism is a ton of fun when done well. It's a great way to create a rhythm or a mood in a piece.
Posted by: Rebecca Thomas | October 21, 2007 at 03:34 AM
Hi Carol
Good to hear from a kindred spirit!
Joanna
Posted by: Joanna Young | October 21, 2007 at 11:33 AM
Hi Rebecca, thanks for calling by.
I think rhythm has a lot to do with it. Sometimes I want to use parallel bullet points to cut extra words - but sometimes I find they work better with the repetition of the same intro. I think it's the rhythmic effect at work.
More on bullet points next week - I hope you'll be back for that :-)
Joanna
Posted by: Joanna Young | October 21, 2007 at 11:35 AM
Joanna -
I'm right there with you. This is a ton of fun!
Ann
Posted by: ann michael | October 21, 2007 at 01:13 PM
Hi Ann - that's great! I'm not sure what you're finding the most fun though - me being less serious, talking about the great Brian Clark, or salivating over bullet points!!!
Joanna
Posted by: Joanna Young | October 21, 2007 at 02:45 PM
Joanna,
I love Brian too. Which is why I emailed this very same to you this morning.
Oppps, I should have read your blog first :-)
Posted by: cat | October 22, 2007 at 08:18 AM
No problem Cat - I am happy that you thought of me in relation to Teaching Sells :-)
Joanna
Posted by: Joanna Young | October 22, 2007 at 09:30 AM
Not that I don't love Brian, but I have to admit it's the bullet points!
Posted by: ann michael | October 25, 2007 at 01:04 AM
That's funny Ann. I'll have to make sure I keep on using them right now I've found out about how much you and others like them!
Joanna
Posted by: Joanna Young | October 25, 2007 at 09:37 AM