What Is a Memorandum Definition and Examples

A memorandum, more commonly known as a memo, is a short message or record used for internal communication in a business. Once the primary form of internal written communication, memorandums have declined in use since the introduction of email and other forms of electronic messaging; however, being able to write clear memos certainly can serve you well in writing internal business emails, as they often serve the same purpose. Purpose of Memos Memos can be used to quickly communicate with a wide audience something brief but important, such as procedural changes, price increases, policy additions, meeting schedules, reminders for teams, or summaries of  agreement terms, for example. Writing Effective Memos Communications strategist Barbara Diggs-Brown  says that an effective memo is  short, concise, highly organized, and never late. It should anticipate and answer all questions that a reader might have. It never provides unnecessary or confusing information. Be clear, be focused, be brief yet complete. Take a professional tone and write as if the world could read it—that is, dont include any information thats too sensitive for everyone to see, especially in this age of copy and paste or click and forward. Format Start with the basics: to whom the article is addressed, the date, and the subject line. Start the body of the memo with a clear purpose, state what you need the readers to know, and conclude with what you need readers to do, if necessary. Remember that employees may just skim the memo upon  receipt, so use short paragraphs, subheads, and where you can, use lists. These are points of entry for the eye so the reader can refer back easily to the part of the memo that he or she needs. Dont forget to proofread. Reading aloud can help you find dropped words, repetition, and awkward sentences. Sample Memo About Print Schedule Change Here is a sample internal memo from a fictional publishing company informing employees about upcoming schedule changes due to a Thanksgiving holiday. Production could also have sent separate memos to separate departments as well, especially if there were more detail that each department needed and  that wouldnt pertain to the other departments. To: All employees From: E.J. Smith, Production Lead Date: November 1, 2018 Subject: Thanksgiving Print Schedule Change Production would like to remind everyone that the Thanksgiving holiday will affect our print deadlines this month. Any hard-copy pages that would normally go out  to the printer via UPS on a Thursday or Friday during the week will need to go out by 3 p.m. on Wednesday, November 21. Ad Sales and Editorial Departments Make sure that anyone sending you text or images for publication wont be on vacation the week of the 19th. Set deadlines earlier for anything coming from outside.  Please know that internal photography and graphic designers will have more work and less time to do it, so please route your work to the appropriate department earlier than normal.Please do not send rush work later than November 16. Any short-turnaround items needed Thanksgiving week cannot be guaranteed to be completed by the earlier deadlines and must go through the schedulers desk for approval before being assigned. Be early instead. Photography and Graphics Departments All members of the art department will be allowed to put in overtime during November as needed to deal with the crunch of the start of the holiday season and the earlier  deadlines.   Thank you in advance, everyone, for your help in getting materials in as early as possible and your consideration for the production department staff. Sample Memo About a Meeting The following is a fictional memo to set up a meeting with members of a team who  are returning from a trade show. To: Trade Show Team From: C.C. Jones, Marketing Supervisor Date: July  10, 2018 Subject: Trade Show Return  Meeting Upon your return to work Friday, July 20, from the trade show, lets plan a noon lunch meeting in the east wing meeting room to go over how the show went. Lets plan to discuss what worked well and what didnt, such as: Number of days in attendanceAmount and types of marketing materials providedBooth displaysHow  the giveaways were receivedThe location of the booth and traffic at different times of dayWhat sparked interest in passersbyBooth staffing levels I know that when you get back from a trade show you have a million things to follow up on, so we will keep the meeting to 90 minutes or less. Please come prepared with your feedback and constructive criticism on the marketing aspects of the show. Existing-customer feedback and new customer leads will be covered in a separate meeting with product and sales teams. Thank you for your work at the show. Source Diggs-Brown, Barbara. The PR Styleguide. 3rd ed, Cengage Learning, 2012.