BLUF: an acronym for “Bottom Line Up Front”
According to the U.S. Department of Army’s Information Management: Records Management on Preparing and Managing Correspondence, section IV, subsection 1-36, alphabetical subsection b:
“Army writing will be concise, organized, and to the point. Two essential requirements include putting the main point at the beginning of the correspondence (bottom line up front) and using the active voice (for example, “You are entitled to jump pay for the time you spent in training last year”). “
Army Regulation 25–50, “Preparing and Managing Correspondence,” Chapter 1-IV, Effective Writing and Correspondence: The Army Writing Style, 1–36b, Standards for Army writing, page 6 (17 May 2013)
Oh, I’m sorry. Did I already lose ya there?
Well come on back!
The BLUF isn’t anything fancy. Quite the opposite. It’s just an acronym that (to the best of my knowledge) originated in the Army but made its way into internal/informal corporate e-mails. Why? To get to the point before reading the whole, lengthy email; sitting through a 3 hour presentation; or reading a 416 page report. Because ain’t nobody got time for that!
You’re a busy human. We get it. You’ve got families to feed, meetings to attend (which we all know could’ve been emails), homes to organize, trips to plan, and friends to see.
Enter: THE BABES BLUF.
We are taking the things you need to know and serving it to you straight by providing you the bottom line up front (the BLUF) so you can stay informed on everything from news stories to travel to science to food, without wasting too much of your already very precious time. Should you want to know more? We’ll give ya that, too!
No pressure, no bullshit, no partisan bias.
Just, THE BABES BLUF.
THE BABES BLUF 