Memos

Memos, also known as memorandums, are communications in the form of a short message to be used as a reminder of some form for some action to be taken in the future. They are typically informal in nature and sent between a group of two or more employees within a company in order to conduct company business. -1-

Why Write a Memo?


In professional environments, memos are key to disseminating information quickly. In the clip shown above from the movie Office Space, an office worker finds himself very far out of the loop when he realizes that he did not get a memo.

Memos are inherently designed to be quickly read and passed on, in order to maximize efficiency within a company, organization, office, etc.

Heading
The header of a memo is a short, easy to see listing of critical information regarding the memo. They typically include the date (which should be spelled out), who wrote the memo, who the memo is addressed to, and the subject of the memo. The subject of the memo should be specific enough so that there is no ambiguity about how the memo relates to the general topic concerning the memo writer and recipient. -2-

Purpose
The purpose of a memo is the reason for writing. The memo writer should answer the questions 'who, what, where, when, and why' in this brief section. -2-

Summary
The summary of a memo should function as a miniature version of the memo. It should include all of the important information of the memo. If a reader is satisfied after simply reading the summary of the memo, then it did its job. -2-

Discussions
The discussion section of a memo should provide some background information about the summary, followed by support for all of the points made in the summary. This section should be simply written using action verbs in order to quickly get to the points that the memo writer wants to convey. In this section of the memo, subheadings may be appropriate but should be labeled properly. -2-

Action
The action section of a memo is a direct recommendation for a course of action. There should be a brief description of this course of action, answering the questions 'who, what, where, when, and why' so that the reader can understand what the course of action entails. It may be appropriate to include alternatives in the case that the reader disagrees with the primary recommendation. Memos that do not have a purpose other than to inform may not need this section. -2-

Directive
The directive memo carries instructions or policy changes for the audience of the memo. In the body of the memo, the rationale for the memo should be explained.-3-

Response to an Inquiry
The response memo carries information that the reader(s) of the memo asked for.-4-

Trip Report
The trip report memo carries information from a subordinate to a superior regarding a trip taken for business by the employee.-5-

Field/Lab Reports
The field report memo carries a brief description of the results of an inspection.-6-

Additional Instruction
If you need more help writing memos, this video below can demonstrate good memo writing.



Note: This video treats the heading and purpose as one section comprised of two parts and the summary, discussion, and action as a separate section, broken up into a beginning, middle, and ending, respectively.

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