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Had a boss tell me my reports were too wordy back in 2018

She said no one reads past the first bullet point so I started putting the main takeaway right at the top. How do you structure reports for people who skim everything?
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3 Comments
thomas.parker
thomas.parker19h agoTop Commenter
Dang I used to be one of those people who wrote full paragraphs with all the context first. Thought people needed to see the whole picture before I dropped the conclusion on them. Then a senior dev I respected told me straight up he only reads the first sentence of any email or report at work. Totally changed how I write now. I structure everything like a news article - main point in bold at the top, then details below for the people who actually care. Works way better for getting stuff approved faster.
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jana119
jana1191mo ago
My 2018 fix was bold lead sentences for skimmers like @averywilliams said.
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averywilliams
Yeah seriously, the TL;DR was the best thing I ever learned to write.
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