{"id":4884,"date":"2017-06-23T11:58:12","date_gmt":"2017-06-23T18:58:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.knowledgecity.com\/?p=4884"},"modified":"2024-05-14T10:50:42","modified_gmt":"2024-05-14T17:50:42","slug":"writing-better-office-memo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.knowledgecity.com\/blog\/writing-better-office-memo\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Write a Better Memo"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the United States, employees often find themselves constantly bombarded by emails. Around 3.2 hours a day are spent checking work-related emails while another 3.1 hours are spent checking personal emails, according to the Huffington Post<\/a>. Workers also check their emails before work, after work, while taking bathroom breaks and during their commute. Obviously, emails are a vital (almost overbearing) component to today\u2019s business communication. So how do you make your important message stand out from the others that flood your coworkers\u2019 and employees\u2019 inboxes? The answer is the often-overlooked office memo.<\/p>\n

Although it seems like ages ago, an office memo once was the primary form of communicating important internal information. They were (and still are) intended to be more formal than emails, but less formal than a business letter.<\/p>\n

People write memos for many reasons, including to share policy or procedure changes, announce upcoming events or meetings, present proposals and share other important internal documents. They aren\u2019t intended to be long pieces but typically have more information than the average email.<\/p>\n

Making the Most of an Office Memo<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Person<\/p>\n

Organize Your Office Memo Beforehand<\/strong><\/p>\n

The art of writing an office memo is a job skill<\/a> that seems to have fallen through the cracks in many offices. Many people don\u2019t spend the time to plan their memo. Be better than this. Before you dive right into memo writing and sharing, some planning needs to take place. Think about the intention of your memo. Are you sharing new guidelines employees need to follow? Are you introducing a new product or project? Create a thesis<\/a> so that you stay in the scope of your memo. Remember: the memo should be shorter than a report and only include needed information. Don\u2019t go into too much detail; you run the risk of losing the reader\u2019s attention.<\/p>\n

Office Memo Writing 101<\/strong><\/p>\n

Now that you\u2019ve planned the scope of your office memo, it\u2019s time to dig into writing it. It\u2019s helpful to outline each section before you begin to write actual sentences. This should be the basic format of a high-quality office memo, as described by Purdue Online Writing Lab<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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  1. Proper heading format:\"workspace<\/a>\n