BLUF

Filed under: New-to-me Words
2 Comments

According to Wikipedia:

BLUF (bottom line up front) […] is a paragraph where the conclusions and recommendations are placed at the beginning of the text, rather than the end, in order to facilitate rapid decision making.

Which seems to me to be pretty much the same approach that a lot of people take by writing “tl;dr: [summary of email]” at the top of an email.

I think it’s a good approach, but I tend to prefer to write Summary: or Short version: instead of using an abbreviation.

2 Responses to “BLUF”

  1. irilyth

    I feel like it was at one point common to put the “TL;DR” summary at the bottom of the message, which seemed natural in some ways — you’ve realized that you’ve rambled on too long and now have to sum up — but also seemed sort of ineffective if you’re aiming at people who are going to stop reading partway through.

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  2. Sarah

    We use BLOT (bottom line on top) at work a lot; most people actually spell it out as “bottom line on top” but the acronym shows up too.

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