Writing the Business Memo
When I’ve finished my studies, I intend to work in the financial services industry.
After talking to my Uncle Clarence, who is a Senior Vice President of Procurement and
Disbursements at First National Loan and Trust Bank Limited, I was surprised to learn
how much writing he does on the job. He writes e-mails, reports, letters to customers and
memos. Of all of these, he writes memos the most frequently. He showed me a few of
the memos he’d written. At first, I thought there wasn’t much to it – they were so short –
sometimes only a few lines! But he then told me that sometimes he’ll spend hours
writing an important memo! If the subject is important (for example, if a lot of money’s
involved, or he’s writing to the President of the company, or he’s giving someone bad
news) he has to make sure he gets it exactly right. So what does it take to write an
effective memo?
Uncle Clarence’s memos served as a good starting point: he’s been working in
the industry for 20 years, and has been writing memos for a long time. Looking over the
examples he gave me, I noticed a few things:
1. All of his memos were short – no more than a page.
2. They all used simple language.
3. All of them had short paragraphs, and many of them presented information in lists
– this made them very readable.
According the John Williams, author of The Business of Business Writing and
Business Writing for Really Stupid People, all of these are important qualities of
memos: they need to be “concise, conversational in tone and organized to present
their message as clearly as possible” (Really Stupid 56). Williamsburg University’s
Internet Writing Lab listed these same criteria, adding that a someone reading your
memo should “be able to understand your message after a single reading.” The Lab
went on to describe the exact format of memos:
•
Top, bottom and margins should be 1-2 inches, the right margin 1/2 - 1 1/2 inches.
•
Paragraphs are single-spaced, with an extra space between paragraphs.
•
The first line of each paragraph should not be indented.
Finally, Guerrilla Writing on the Electronic Frontier, by Mary Clapton, suggests
that memos need to be organized with their audience’s possible reactions in mind. When
giving bad news, for example, “the memo needs to emphasize the positive by easing
readers into the bad news” (678-9).
In order to put all of these qualities into practice, I’ve decided to write a memo in
response to a very complicated situation. For my assignment, I’ll first describe the
writing situation to which I’m responding, and then will write a memo that meets all of
the above criteria.
Writing Situation for Business Memo
I’m heading up a project team for an American company selling
detergents overseas. Lately, there have been problems with counterfeit
versions of our products being sold in small stores in other countries. My
team has to solve this problem. We’re working against a tight deadline, the
project has already faced a number of delays, and a great deal of work still
needs to be done.
Over the past month team members have been busy with other
projects, and many have skipped afternoon and morning meetings,
complaining of scheduling conflicts. In order to complete work on the
project, we’ll have to start meeting after-hours. Unfortunately, due to work
being done on the computer network, we can’t meet at work. Not only must
the team meet after hours, but also they must meet off-premises, at a
conference room of a hotel.
My memo will have to inform the team of these changes. But I need
them to stay motivated, so that they don’t come to these meetings with an
attitude that will prevent our getting any work done. So my memo will also
have to put a positive spin on things.
To: All, Counterfeit Brands Project Team
From: Dweezle Zappa, Team Leader
Subject: Strategy for Completing Project On-time
We’ve made great progress in the past few months in devising strategies for
addressing the problem of counterfeit brands. I am confident that the
strategies we’re developing will help the company regain much of the
market share lost to these brands.
As you know, the project deadline is less than a month away. While we’ve
accomplished a great deal, there is a lot of work yet to be done. I realize
that many team members are involved with other projects, and this has made
it difficult for many people to attend meetings. As a result, over the last few
weeks our progress has slowed. As things stand, we will probably miss our
deadline, which means our scheduling problems will continue, and the
company will keep losing money to counterfeits. In order to finish the
project on-schedule, we’ll need to arrange for meetings at a time when
everyone can attend.
Fortunately, Unilever has made funds available to rent a conference room at
the Plaza Hotel. By holding our remaining meetings over dinner, we should
have no problem meeting the project deadline. I’d recommend:
Monday 7:00 – 9:00
Wednesday 7:00 - 9:00
Thursday 5:00 – 8:00
At our next meeting we can decide if these nights work for everyone,
keeping in mind that we’ll need to meet at least three times a week. More
important, we can vote on the menu!
Please feel free to contact me at any time with any questions or concerns.