Writing memos

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Writing memos
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Why learn about writing memos?

• important form of corporate communication
• clear and concise communication of complex
  subjects
• writing style and approach applicable to other
  communications, such as email
• set yourself apart from people who cannot write

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Purpose of a memo

• solve problems by
• informing
• persuading
• refuting
• arguing
• analyzing
• Recipients one person, several persons, one or
  more groups, a whole community

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General rules

• keep your audience in mind
• follow a structure (see below)
• follow an outline
• get to the point early
• revising is easier than writing perfectly the
  first time
• follow style guides and writing manuals
• budget between 20 min 1 hr for most memos

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Memo plan

• Header

Subject line
Opening paragraph

Supporting details/explanation
Closing
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Header

• To recipient (individuals and/or groups)
• From you/office (e.g. Student Affairs)/group
  (e.g. Social Committee)
• CC more recipient(s)
• Date
• use correct names/designations for recipients
• include titles when appropriate, for all
  recipients when possible

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Subject line

• probably the most important part of your memo
• summarize the intent of your memo, e.g.
• Request for assistance with grant project
• Consequences of recent material thefts
• specific, concise and to the point

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Opening paragraph

• complete summary of your memo
• provide
• context
• task/action/request
• summary of the rest of the memo
• Best put your intent into the first sentence

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Supporting details/explanation

• maintain a global structure, such as findings ?
  implications ? action items
• arrange facts in a logical order
• dont provide more detail than necessary
• use bullet points where appropriate
• use correct structure bullet points (e.g. no
  standalone bullets)

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Closing

• If necessary, summarize what you want
  recipient(s) to do.
• Provide clear instructions, including deadlines
  where applicable.
• Provide further references/contact information
  when appropriate.

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In-class exercise 1 Critique a memo

• Review Institutional Advancement Memo Version 1
  for compliance with the rules just discussed.

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Writing style

• It now appears that obligatory obfuscation is a
  firm tradition within the medical profession.
  Medical writing is a highly skilled, calculated
  attempt to confuse the reader. A doctor feels
  he might get passed over for an assistant
  professorship because he wrote his papers too
  clearlybecause he made his ideas seem too
  simple.
• Michael Crichton, NEJM

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More about writing style

• There are times when the more the authors
  explain, the less we understand. Apes certainly
  seem capably of using language to communicate.
  Whether scientists are remains doubtful.
• Douglas Chadwick, NYT

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Example

• Our lack of data prevented evaluation of state
  actions in targeting funds to areas in need of
  assistance.
• Because we lacked data, we could not evaluate
  whether the state had targeted funds to areas
  that needed assistance.

?
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Clarity Actions

• Use subjects to name your central characters.
• Express their most important actions as verbs.

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Verb ? Noun Nominalization

• Examples
• discover ? discovery
• resist ? resistance
• different ? difference
• proficient ? proficiency
• Nominalization makes for a noun-heavy writing
  style that is complex and hard to understand.

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How to fix it

• Diagnosis
• Analysis
• Revision
• (J. Williams, Style, p. 54, 55)

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Please fix

• The agency conducted an investigation into the
  matter.
• The agency investigated the matter.

?
There was first a review of the evolution of the
dorsal fin.
First, she reviewed how the dorsal fin evolved.
?
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Use characters as your subjects

• A character is whatever entity you can tell a
  story about, such as
• you
• the school
• the Executive Committee
• the Democratic party
• freedom of speech
• health care costs

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Active vs. passive voice

• Choose the passive voice when you dont know who
  did it, your readers dont care who did it, or
  you dont want them to know who did it.

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Example

• Those who are found guilty can be fined.
• Once the design was publicized, it was widely
  adopted.

?
?
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A style that seems complex

• may be necessary to express complex ideas
  precisely.
• may gratuitously complicate already complex
  ideas.
• may gratuitously complex simple ideas.

?
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Cohesion

• Move from old information to new.
• Arrange topics in a logical order.
• Start sentences with ideas that you have already
  described, or with something you can safely
  assume the reader already knows.
• Keep your topics short and reasonably consistent.

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Syntactic complexity

• In general, readers best comprehend long complex
  units after they have read a relatively short and
  clear subjectverb sequence.
• Place technical terms new to the reader not at
  the beginning, but towards the end of the
  sentence.

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Example

• To help in the efforts of ABCO, Inc., to develop
  medical policies in regard to coverage of
  employees engaged in high-risk activities, Dr.
  Jones has served as a medical consultant.
• Dr. Jones has served as a medical consultant to
  help ABCO, Inc., develop medical policies in
  regard to coverage of employees engaged in
  high-risk activities.

?
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Clarity, grace and concision

• Delete words that mean little or nothing.
• Delete words that repeat other words.
• Delete words whose meaning the reader can infer
  from other words.
• Replace a phrase with a word.
• Change unnecessary negatives to affirmatives.

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Homework

• Rewrite Institutional Advancement Memo Version
  2 for compliance with the guidelines discussed in
  the lecture.

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Resources

• Williams, J. Style Ten Lessons in Clarity and
  Grace (7th Ed.), Longman, New York, 2002
• Pitt style guide www.umc.pitt.edu/umc/styleguide/
  contents.html
• Merriam Websters Manual for Writers and Editors,
  Merriam-Webster, Inc., Springfield, MA 1998
• Siegal, AM and Connolly, W. The New York Times
  Manual of Style and Usage, Random House, New
  York, 1999