Listicle
An article organized as numbered items so readers can scan, compare, and jump straight to the parts they care about.
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What it is
A listicle is an article built as a numbered or bulleted series of items. Each item carries one idea, example, recommendation, or step, so readers can scan the headings and stop where they find something useful. BuzzFeed made the format a recognizable internet genre in the early 2010s, but ranked lists and roundup articles long predate it.
Reach for a listicle when the subject is naturally countable: tools to compare, mistakes to avoid, examples to study, or steps to take. State the selection criteria near the top, give every item the same useful fields, and order the list by rank, sequence, category, or reader need rather than whatever came to mind first.
Gotcha: the number is a contract. Padding seven good ideas into twenty weak ones burns trust, and a headline such as '10 best tools' needs a defensible reason those ten made the cut. A list can make scanning easier; it cannot replace reporting, evidence, or judgment.
Ask AI for it
Write a 10-item listicle about [topic] for [audience] using the inverted pyramid technique. Open with the reader's decision and the criteria used to choose the items. Give every item a specific heading, a two-sentence explanation, one concrete example, and one limitation. Order the list by usefulness, not alphabetically. Write a headline that states the number and payoff without a curiosity gap, and remove any item that exists only to reach ten.