Things that Make a List Bad
Submitted by mossbawn on Mon, 04/24/2006 - 04:48
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- When a person writes, "In no particular order," or something of the sort. When things are listed, they are automatically and necessarily placed in some sort of order. If there was no order, it wouldn't be a list. You necessarily write something first, something second, etc. The order your listed items appear may not be chosen for any reason besides stream-of-consciousness, but there is always an order!
- Really long explanations/descriptions (see above).
- Lack of capital letters and/or punctuation.
- The Beatles at number 1.
- Crossing categories (e.g. putting a TV show on a list about movies just because it is on DVD).
- Gratuitous spelling mistakes.
- Dishonesty--don't tell me you've read 300+ books this year unless you're some sort of professional reader. Or unless they were really short books.
- Claiming that "everybody should" read/watch/listen to something you happen to enjoy.
- Gender-exclusive language.
An excellent list. I share some of these pet peeves too. With regard to your first point, I always try and rank things by opinion, or organise alphabetically or by year - there's nothing worse than a completely disorganised list.
What's wrong with The Beatles being at number 1?
I suppose if you really like The Beatles that much, more power to you. But I still sort of feel like most people who would put The Beatles at the top of their list (unless it is a list of greatest English pop acts, some of whose members have died) don't have any original opinions of their own. Or it's like, even if The Beatles are honestly your #1, tell me something I don't already know. I want to read about some underground or well-hidden stuff that I can go check out. That might just be me, I guess.