Formatting as courtesy to the reader

Formatted text (especially bullet points with the first sentence bolded) seems to be twigging some people that it’s AI-generated. (I’ve mostly seen people share Reddit posts where they’re dismissed as being machines.) I also saw someone note that bolded key points made them feel like the author thought they were dumb and was condescending to them. I personally use a lot of formatting in my blog writing, which I intend as a courtesy to the reader. I know that people have a lot of options for reading material, and that they must judge quickly whether or not a piece of writing will be pertinent to their interests or needs. How to Read a Book describes a staged approach* to evaluating a text that can be adapted to other forms of writing: first, read the headings and judge the structure of a piece, next check out any figures and charts, then read the intro (and potentially conclusion) to gauge if the middle is worthwhile. Only then do you actually read it. *(I’m going from memory, this…