The course began with two projects in rapid succession: the business letter and the memo. It seems that at least part of the reason behind this was to dispel any notions that a letter and a memo are simply two words for the same thing. Both have highly formalized conventions, but their purpose and content are ultimately quite divergent, and parsing out these nuances has been a central objective of the entire course. A memo is essentially an official communication with a very specific aim, one that in the course of its contents provides both a persuasive narrative for a particular cause and acts as a resource for addressing that cause the best that it can. The writer’s job is to make that narrative convincing and also to make it as easy and desirable as possible for readers to follow up in whatever ways they ideally can. Such a document can be sent in almost any professional capacity, but it is often found as a communication between members of the same organization.
A standard memo is likely to have most or all of the following components:
- Heading – basic string of recipient information, sender information, date, and subject
- Opening Segment – establishes purpose of the memo
- Context – background information needed to fully understand the problem
- Task Segment – role the writer is playing in solving this problem
- Summary Segment – sums up major recommendations in a longer memo
- Discussion Segment – specific information that supports the narrative of the memo
- Closing Segment – ends the memo and specifies what action the reader should take
- Attachments
The particular memo project that we engaged in consisted of contacting employees at City College in order to improve a particular part of the school, such as a process, a portal, or some other element of the student experience. Having written multiple memos since then, I have become even more familiar with the form’s conventions and general content. Inspired by numerous comments on my work, I have improved upon this memo in several ways, including by changing the heading, adding a second page header, excising some extraneous information, and revising several sentences to improve clarity.
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