Thewissen, JamesFocquet, NatanNatanFocquet2025-05-142025-05-142025-05-142024https://hdl.handle.net/2078.2/38269Numerous studies have examined various factors contributing to the success of companies, such as linguistic and visual readability. However, the limited evidence on the effect of structural readability on investors’ ability to understand information remains an uncharted territory. This paper investigates the impact of using bullet points in corporate communication and its effect on share price reactions. We focused our study on two main aspects: the optimal number of bullet points and their informativeness through the sentiment employed. Our results suggest a curvilinear relationship between the use of bullet points and share price reactions, with six bullet points being the optimal number for maximum impact. Additionally, we found that the use of a positive tone was four times greater within the bullet points than in the rest of the text or the document as a whole. This positive tone is particularly prevalent among companies that outperform predicted results. The positive tone used in Earnings Press Releases (EPRs) has a significant impact on investor reactions, as measured by cumulative abnormal returns (CARs). We contribute to the literature by demonstrating that a better-structured earnings press release, especially one improved through the use of bullet points, can enhance investor decision-making reactions. Moreover, we exploit this specific structure to define better tone proxies, improving the methods for conducting intratextual sentiment analysis. Our findings offer valuable insights for managers to improve their information transmission and for investors to more easily comprehend the presentation and implications of the information provided.Bullet pointsStructural readabilityDual-Coding TheoryImpression ManagementSentiment analysisTonetext::thesis::master thesisthesis:45829