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hi everyone this is David Taylor and thank you for joining me today and our virtual Writing Center for a lesson on one of the most common business documents in the workplace today the memo or memorandum lets us sip into one of the classrooms here and get started if you would please follow me please have a seat anywhere as we prepare to talk about the memo a form of writing that I bet virtually all of you have had experience with reading if not already writing and therein lies one of its problems the memo is one of those kinds of writing that we see so often that we we assume that we already know how to do one but like another form of common communication the email that assumption can sometimes get us into trouble so why don't we start with a discussion of the basics of the memo what we do know and what we don't know I think a good place to start is with a clear definition of the memo the three key characteristics of a memo are that one it is an internal document this is helpful to know because you're more likely to know both the primary audience those to whom it is addressed and the secondary audience those who may read it without your knowing that more intimate knowledge of the audience within your workplace or company gives you an advantage in comparison to letters that fly outside the office and immediately become public documents second a memo is brief usually one pages two pages at most certainly there are special types of memos that can be longer but it's best to think of the memo as a one pager longer than an email but usually not a complex multi-page document third the memos utility and a company or work unit it has great utility from routine reports and notifications to the proposal memo which can be long or even the memo of understanding which is a type of legal document but you ask aren't memos sort of a relic of the past like transistor radios or Commodore computers yes and no certainly digital forms of communication dominate the workplace today from email to IMS from blogpost to Skype chats but there are still reasons and occasions when only the written memo will do let's take a look at some of those reasons and occasions one when you watch your communication to stand out in the flood of digital communications who isn't overwhelmed by email every day in the workplace but how many attractive printed documents are gently laid upon your desk - that printed document laid upon your desk forces the recipient to take their hands off the keyboard hold your actual work and their actual hands sit back and read it now be honest do you read all emails or do you scan most of them sometimes not even open them depending upon the subject line and the sender 3 with today's advanced word processing software you can control precisely how your document looks and sometimes a certain look is what you need to make your point or win your audience having this ability also allows you to control the level of formality that you desire whereas most email by definition is usually assumed to be informal before it is open okay let's take a short break now and when we come back we're going to talk about this crucial idea of audience and how it informs everything that we write and how we write it okay take five and I'll see you in a few you know they say that there's only one rule of writing there are no rules the audience rules and what that means is that however is best to communicate your purpose your message to your audience that is exactly how you should write and it is exactly what should be in the writing now when it comes to memo writing which remember is an internal document there are three audiences you're either writing to a superior and equal or subordinate or sometimes all three and guess who gets the top billing so keep that in mind whenever we go back into the classroom and we start talking about the nuts and bolts of memorizing that no matter what we say in there there's still only one rule in writing the audience rules whatever pleases them is exactly what you should do please after you you know not only does the audience rule the company also rules no matter what any textbook or video tells you if your company has set down certain standards those are exactly the standards that you should follow some companies even publish what is called a house style a little manual that you must follow if the company does not publish but such a style book simply look to the recent memos of respected colleagues or successful colleagues certainly and find out answers to such questions that you must ask yourself when you're writing a memo questions such as should I use company letterhead stationery for my first page letterhead is usually not content you'd after the first page of a memo for recipients should I list full names first and last or last name and initials only should I include job titles after the recipients name job titles add extra information that can make the memo more useful for future readers what typeface font or point size are preferred or on the opposite side which ones will irritate my readers should i handwrite my initials by my name on the front line and so on okay time for some nuts and bolts let's take a look at a typical company memo identify its parts and comment on best practices for each part keep in mind that if you have a company style sheet that will always take precedence now here we see a typical company memo that starts its first page on company letterhead as we look at this thumbnail of the standard memo let's notice two overall things first the margins there are 1-inch margins left and right the second thing is the paragraphing notice that the memo is written in block paragraph form which means that the paragraphs are not indented but they are separated by one length line one common mistake is not using aligned columns for the headings to from and subject which is standard as is the bold facing of these headings sometimes a company may prefer re or regarding again you must always check company policy date if there is no company style such as centering it under the word memorandum also place it the date in the column of headings after each heading is a colon then the item it points to these items should also be column aligned the subject line is one of the most important parts of your memo here is what you need to know one it should be as specific as possible consider the subject line of a summary and non sentence form for example expense reimbursement okay but that's far less effective than expense reimbursement for January 401k seminar capitalization the subject line is capitalized as if it were a title it'll work which means the first and last words no matter what they are are always capitalized all major words in between are also capitalized except for articles a and E and short prepositions for two of next begin your memo with a clear statement of purpose it's fine to write as your first sentence the purpose of this memorandum is to remember the X holton axiom first be clear then you can be clever the two exceptions to this statement of purpose rule are one if the intended reader needs background information in order to set the stage for him or her before the reader gets into the meat of the memo and two if you know the reader is skeptical hostile or otherwise likely to disagree then you may want the soft sell your opening a bit more now for your subject heading and your purpose statement take the time to choose an accurate purpose word maybe keep a list of them handy for example the purpose of a memo can be to review to assess proposed recommend evaluate explain describe outline and form to forecast to authorize to illustrate to report to offer to summarize and so on notice that in the body you want to use clear subtitles or subheadings to signal the organization of the memo to the reader all of these subtitles must be styled the same including having the exact same spacing for all of them before and after notice also how short paragraphs are used five to eight sentences is the preferred business style if not shorter along with lists and tables when appropriate instead of full sentences for example instead of full sentences or not provide a bullet list for providing steps and a procedure the ending of the memo end with action steps what happens next what do you want the reader to do what do you promise to do and of course one of the primary differences between a letter and a memo is that the memo does not have a complimentary closing or signature well thank you very much for coming by today for this lesson on the memo in our virtual offices along with the transcript to this video you will also find a checklist that can be used as you compose and revise your memos and I hope that you find it useful and of course you're always welcome right here at the ewc for us to take a look at your writing anytime at any stage good luck on your memo and