When writing you should put your main point in the beginning. People are busier than ever and their time is valuable. Do everything you can to get them clear, actionable information as quickly as possible.
Known as bottom line up front or BLUF, this style originated with the US military for writing memos. Experience has shown this is another miltiary technology that can be used to great effect at work. Business writing is different from communicating with your friends or the inductive writing taught in school which takes readers on a journey of discovery.
Your reader does not always want to know all the background information that led to a decision. But they will always want to know how this email will impact them. Your bottom line should answer this question every time. The following example shows this principle in practice.
Email Example
Instead of starting with a history of your activities, followed by a conclusion:
I noticed a slow query in our logs last month and I have spent the last week looking at our database usage. I noticed that today we are adding a million rows every day and
… lots more details …
All of these fixes together will take almost 5 months. The primary database will likely run out of space within six months. Should I start working on this next week?
Put the important information in the beginning and then supply additional details afterward:
Summary
At our current rate of user growth, our primary database will run out of space in six months. We need to start a mitigation effort next week to ensure our service will continue to function in the second half of the year. When can we talk about scheduling this work? I am available before noon Pacific on Thursday or Friday.Details
A rough outline of the necessary work follows, along with my estimates for how long each section will take.… supporting details …