BLUF writing

Contract

Enforces bottom-line-up-front structure on any message that carries a decision, request, or conclusion: the first sentence states the bottom line — the concrete action, its owner, and the deadline — and all context follows it. Apply to emails, memos, status updates, and incident notes; not to long-form narrative, marketing copy, or grammar fixes.

Rules

1. First sentence = the bottom line. Immediately after the greeting (if any), state the

decision, request, or conclusion as a concrete action. Nothing precedes it — no throat-clearing, no history, no "as you may remember".

1. The deadline rides in the bottom line. If the action has a date or time, the opening

sentence carries it. A deadline first mentioned in the closing paragraph is a buried deadline.

1. The owner rides in the bottom line. A request says who must act — a named person or a

named team — in that opening sentence. "It would be good if someone could" owns nothing.

1. Context comes after, never before. Background, history, and reasoning follow under the

bottom line — a short Background: or Details: block works well. The reader who stops after sentence one still knows what to do and by when.

1. One message, one bottom line. Exactly one ask or decision per message. Side information

is subordinated as an explicit FYI below the details — or moved to its own message — never phrased as a second ask hiding in the closing paragraph.

1. The subject line flags the action. When the message has a subject line, it mirrors the

bottom line — the action and the date ("Approval needed: patch window, reply by Wed") — not a vague topic ("Server room", "Quick update").

Worked examples

The base's buildup-first default on top; the conforming message below.

An approval request that buried its ask:

BEFORE  Hi Dana, hope your week is going well. As you may remember, our
        data-center firewall rules were last reviewed back in 2023. Since
        then we've added two new subnets and the audit flagged three stale
        entries. The team has prepared a cleanup and tested it in staging.
        Could you approve the change window when you get a chance?

AFTER   Hi Dana — please approve the firewall-cleanup change window for
        Saturday 21 June by end of Wednesday.

        Background: rules last reviewed in 2023; the audit flagged three
        stale entries; the cleanup is prepared and staging-tested.

A status update that made the exec dig for the decision:

BEFORE  Over the past quarter the facilities group has been evaluating our
        office options. Rents in the area have shifted, and the landlord
        has signaled flexibility. After comparing three scenarios...

AFTER   Decision needed by 30 September: extend the office lease or commit
        to a move — facilities recommends extending.

        Details: rents have shifted; the landlord signaled flexibility;
        three scenarios compared below.

A conclusion-type bottom line (no ask — the finding leads):

BEFORE  At 11:02 we began seeing elevated error rates on the search
        cluster. Investigation pointed to a bad node, which was drained...

AFTER   Search is fully recovered; no action needed from anyone on this
        list. Next update only if the error rate returns.

        Timeline: 11:02 elevated errors; bad node drained; 11:31 recovered.

A second ask, demoted to FYI:

BEFORE  ...and finally, while I have you, we should also think about the
        badge-reader upgrade sometime soon.

AFTER   FYI only: a badge-reader upgrade proposal will come separately —
        nothing to decide in this message.

Edge cases & exceptions

• No natural deadline → propose one in the bottom line ("...by Friday so the window

holds") rather than leaving the action open-ended.

• Pure-FYI message → the bottom line is the conclusion itself ("X is done; no action

needed"), still in sentence one.

• Bad news → still up front. Cushioning a slip or an overrun behind two paragraphs of

context reads as evasion; state it, then explain.

• Several genuine asks to the same person → separate messages; if they truly must travel

together, one umbrella bottom line naming the count ("Three approvals needed by Friday — listed below"), never asks scattered through the prose.

Do / Don't

• Do open with the action, owner, and date. Don't open with history or pleasantries beyond a

one-word greeting.

• Do put the date in sentence one. Don't reveal the deadline in the last line.
• Do name who acts. Don't write "someone should" or leave the actor implicit.
• Do subordinate side items as explicit FYI. Don't smuggle a second ask into the closing.
• Do write action-flagging subject lines. Don't write topic-only subjects like "Update".

Common mistakes

• Greeting → context → history → ask-in-the-last-sentence (the default shape).
• A deadline that appears only after the background, or never.
• "It would be great if we could..." — no owner, no commitment.
• Two or three asks braided through one message.
• A subject line that names the topic but not the action ("Parking", "Q3 planning").

Quick checklist

• Sentence one after the greeting = the decision/request/conclusion, as a concrete action.
• Date and owner inside that first sentence.
• Background/details strictly after the bottom line.
• Exactly one bottom line; side items marked FYI or split out.
• Subject line mirrors the action and the date.