tl;dr

in #writing7 years ago

TL;DR promotes laziness for both writers and readers.

For those who don't know, "tl;dr" stands for "too long, didn't read." It's generally used to sum up a large block of text, so that people who don't have time to read the whole thing can get the information quickly.

This seems fine and dandy, but the problem is it promotes laziness all around. For readers, you can just skip to the end of a big block of text and get a summary of everything you need. For writers, you can write and write and write, but as long as you include a succinct tl;dr, you don't need to edit your text or even make it interesting enough to keep reading. If you can get everything across in a "tl;dr", why not cut the rest of your text?

Anyone feel the same way?

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I look at it like this: If a reader is interested in the subject and wants to know more, a tl;dr is the best way to direct a reader to your writing. It allows for the reader to choose what they read. I don't think a writer should cut their text -provided they wrote clearly in the first place- because some are not interested in reading more.