BUSINESS MEMOS
How frequently do you write memos? Think of the last memo you wrote (whether at work or school). What was your main purpose in writing it? Did you want to inform readers or persuade them to take a specific action? Who was your primary audience?
The word memo is short for memorandum, a document used for communicating within a business or organization; accordingly, the authors of and audience for memos are colleagues in a workplace. Memos are generally brief, seldom running more than a few pages long when printed out. Some memos are formatted as the document below: the “professional design” memo template offered by Microsoft Office. Others are sent as e-mails or attachments to e-mails. (See Microsoft Office for templates for memos, e-mails, and more.)
In the workplace, we write and read memos for a variety of reasons, such as:
- To provide (or receive) information for specific plans, meetings/events, policies, and so on
- To provide (or receive) instructions for specific tasks
- To persuade others (or be persuaded) to take a specific action or make a decision
The information in memos is often time sensitive and related to specific tasks or events, so people usually read them when they receive them, or in preparation for a specific meeting, discussion, or decision. For example, a company president trying to decide whether to create a new position for a director of sales and marketing might read the company’s year-end-report and the memos about sales, competition, and the larger marketplace as part of his or her decision-making process.