4 ms·

My current best way to write is to just write everything that amuses me, then go back and edit out the tangents, and then usually reverse the order of the parag

My current best way to write is to just write everything that amuses me, then go back and edit out the tangents, and then usually reverse the order of the paragraphs.

namanyayg 6mo ago
Interesting, why reverse?
- RyanMu 6mo ago
  what?
- hyperhello 6mo ago
  I don’t know. When I jam out a comment I seem to summarize at the end when I’m done, and then I reread quickly and see the summary made a weird conclusion but was a fine introduction.
- treetalker 6mo ago
  A common suggestion is to put the bottom line on the top line. Consider all the articles posted even here that make the reader suffer through the writer's own thinking process before getting to the point.
  - dctoedt 6mo ago
    > A common suggestion is to put the bottom line on the top line. BLUF: Bottom Line Up Front — e.g., https://hbr.org/2016/11/how-to-write-email-with-military-precision https://hbr.org/2016/11/how-to-write-email-with-military-pre...
- cardiffspaceman 6mo ago
  When news was transmitted by flaky telegraph systems, the first paragraph evolved to be a concise version. The ensuing paragraphs provided layers of detail. If the connection was lost, whatever got through would stand as enough. That is more or less how I write emails for work. The other thing is, tell em what you’re going to say, then say it, then tell em what you told them.
  - tetha 6mo ago
    This. Sometimes during hectic times, my bosses need to get the right summary of everything in one phone screen. So I generally try to have mails with a first line summarizing everything in one glance, a short section you can read in an elevator ride, and then everything else. For example, during Log4Shell, our Group Director of Operations was helping Support and Account Management with scared customers and was just bouncing customer meeting to meeting. Hence, line one of the mail was "Rollout of mitigation 1 to applications estimated by 12:13; delays expected at only internally reachable middleware". After that, a 3-4 sentence paragraph with more details and then a longer explanation in detail, ideally with keywords highlighted and such. Those would be discussed in some peace later on.

My current best way to write is to just write everything that amuses me, then go back and edit out the tangents, and then usually reverse the order of the paragraphs.

namanyayg 6mo ago

Interesting, why reverse?

RyanMu 6mo ago
what?
hyperhello 6mo ago
I don’t know. When I jam out a comment I seem to summarize at the end when I’m done, and then I reread quickly and see the summary made a weird conclusion but was a fine introduction.
treetalker 6mo ago
A common suggestion is to put the bottom line on the top line. Consider all the articles posted even here that make the reader suffer through the writer's own thinking process before getting to the point.
- dctoedt 6mo ago
  > A common suggestion is to put the bottom line on the top line. BLUF: Bottom Line Up Front — e.g., https://hbr.org/2016/11/how-to-write-email-with-military-precision https://hbr.org/2016/11/how-to-write-email-with-military-pre...
cardiffspaceman 6mo ago
When news was transmitted by flaky telegraph systems, the first paragraph evolved to be a concise version. The ensuing paragraphs provided layers of detail. If the connection was lost, whatever got through would stand as enough. That is more or less how I write emails for work. The other thing is, tell em what you’re going to say, then say it, then tell em what you told them.
- tetha 6mo ago
  This. Sometimes during hectic times, my bosses need to get the right summary of everything in one phone screen. So I generally try to have mails with a first line summarizing everything in one glance, a short section you can read in an elevator ride, and then everything else. For example, during Log4Shell, our Group Director of Operations was helping Support and Account Management with scared customers and was just bouncing customer meeting to meeting. Hence, line one of the mail was "Rollout of mitigation 1 to applications estimated by 12:13; delays expected at only internally reachable middleware". After that, a 3-4 sentence paragraph with more details and then a longer explanation in detail, ideally with keywords highlighted and such. Those would be discussed in some peace later on.