The humble list of 3

My thoughts today focus on the list of 3, the rule of 3 or even tripartite statements! Why do I find myself day in day out asking students to just drop a few into a description at GCSE or a creative piece at A level? I am not forgetting KS3, I hear from teachers that teach them that the younger amongst you love a list of 3. But why? Why are English teachers so obsessed? Why are tripartite statements so powerful? The answer is not just that they tick a box in the mark scheme of most English tests and exams. They do actually have a function in the real world!

I was once told that if you collect things together in your mind in 3s then you will remember them better. So if you are going shopping think: bread, cheese, milk and then ice-cream, bananas, squash. In theory it works by chunking lists into 3 but at my age I get to the shop and realise I have forgotten my wallet!

So 3 things are easier to remember, so that must help the audience or reader, mustn't it? Another reason, without mentioning any companies based in Maidenhead, is that 3 is the magic number. 3 has always been special, don't you remember the 3 little pigs, the 3 billy goats gruff, Goldilocks and the 3 bears! 3 has been attacking us since we were knee high, so you might as well take the hint and realise the power of 3.

It can be 3 adjectives: delicious, mouth-watering, scrumptious or 3 nouns: monkeys, penguins, dolphins. It can even be a combination including adjectives and nouns: delicious cakes, mouth-watering fruit, scrumptious fudge. You cannot believe how difficult it was to write that sentence without using alliteration because if you really want to master the list of 3 and jump through all the hoops, even if it does make you sound cheesy, then you get alliterative. Your monkeys are moody, your penguins become penitent and your dolphins are simply delightful.

Go on try it but remember your audience, purpose and form. Not sure that history, geography or psychology teachers are lovers of the rhetoric of 3.