While everybody’s focused on how Gen Z ends their emails, these days, I’m much more focused on the beginning. One of the first things I learned after landing at PureWow is their strategic approach to crafting emails, both internally and externally, and it all comes down to four letters: BLUF.

Standing for “Bottom Line Up Front,” it’s a military acronym that encourages you to tell the recipient exactly what you need from them, then provide the background info. It’s a great way to tighten your writing all around, because it makes you state your thesis right off the bat. No long paragraphs to wade through; just here’s what we need and why we need it. The “how are you?” and “hope you are well” pleasantries can still exist; you can just move them to the end.

This one-liner is especially helpful when you’re looping someone in on a long email chain. Don’t make them follow the back-and-forth; give them a quick note (“Sandy, I wanted your take on whether this story should go live on Thursday or Friday.”), followed by a brief synopsis of the thread as a separate paragraph. If Sandy wants all the nitty gritty details, she can scroll on.

This snappier approach to email writing means I often get replies faster and I get exactly the info I need from people (even if sometimes it’s “let’s hop on a call to discuss further”). Small change, big results.

Lead Photo: Brooke Cagle/Unsplash