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4.01 office-memorandums - Exercise.docx42.4 KB Lesson 4.01 Exercise Solution - Memorandum Template.docx
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Quick reference
Office Memorandums
What are memorandums, and how are they structured?
When to use
Use this section to understand when to use memorandums, and how to write one. Watch the lesson video to learn how to use the attached template.
Main Points
Memorandums carry a straightforward, business-like tone and are usually informational in purpose. The layout is as follows:
MEMORANDUM
TO: [Recipient(s)]
FROM: [Your Name, Job Title]
DATE: [Today’s Date]
SUBJECT: [Specific Topic]
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The first paragraph should state the purpose of the memo. It should be about one or two sentences, but no more than three sentences.
This second paragraph is for your main content. This is the body of your email. Use this to outline the actual news, change, or details of the memo. You can also provide any support or justification for the new information in this paragraph. If the details are especially long, you can place the justification or support in a new paragraph.
This paragraph can have justification or support if the main content of the memo was especially long.
The final paragraph is for the next steps. Even if no specific tasks are to be completed, share with the recipient(s) what is expected of them at this stage.
Login to download- 00:04 A memorandum, or memo, for short, is used for internal communications
- 00:09 about procedures or official business within an organization.
- 00:15 They generally take an informational tone.
- 00:18 And unlike a transactional letter, a response isn't usually expected.
- 00:22 A memo is often sent to a large group of employees, like your entire department,
- 00:27 or everyone within the company.
- 00:30 You might need to write a memo to inform staff of upcoming events, like the annual
- 00:35 staff party, or to share news about internal changes like someone's promotion.
- 00:41 So let's see what a memo looks like.
- 00:45 The most noticeable thing is the word memo,
- 00:49 or a memorandum, in large bold lettering at the top of the page.
- 00:53 In the next four lines, you'll state who the document is being sent to,
- 00:59 who it's being sent from, the date and the subject.
- 01:03 Notice that we use tabs to keep the header sections aligned.
- 01:10 A horizontal line separating the header section from the body comes next.
- 01:15 If you're doing your memo from scratch, here's how to get that horizontal line.
- 01:21 Let's delete this one here.
- 01:26 If you just type a few dashes on your keyboard and then hit Enter,
- 01:30 then Microsoft Word will autocorrect this to align all the way across the page.
- 01:38 Let's undo this.
- 01:41 If you prefer a double line effect, you can type a few equal signs,
- 01:45 hit Enter, and you've gotten a double line all the way across the page.
- 01:53 Now to start the memo itself, there's no need for
- 01:57 a salutation because the addressee's names or titles are already here.
- 02:01 And the opening paragraph should state the purpose of the memo.
- 02:05 This will be about one or two sentences, it definitely shouldn't go over three.
- 02:11 The second paragraph is for your content.
- 02:13 Use this paragraph to outline the actual news.
- 02:17 Tell them what's changed or what the details are that you'd like to share.
- 02:22 You also provide any support or
- 02:24 justification of the new information in the same paragraph.
- 02:29 Now if either the details or the justification is especially long,
- 02:33 you can separate this into two paragraphs.
- 02:38 The final paragraph outlines what will or should happen next.
- 02:43 Even if there are no specific tasks to be completed,
- 02:46 it's important for the reader to know what's expected of them.
- 02:49 And that basically rounds off what should go in a memo.
- 02:54 You can include the signature of the sender at the bottom, to the left,
- 02:58 but that's usually omitted.
- 03:00 Remember that the name of the sender was already stated at the top of the document.
- 03:09 Memos are formal documents that carry a straightforward, business-like tone.
- 03:14 Established company acronyms that aren't just informal shorthand codes are okay.
- 03:19 Remember that we avoid emotional and
- 03:21 conversational language when writing memos.
- 03:24 And obviously, there shouldn't be any emojis, exclamation marks or
- 03:30 Internet abbreviations in this type of document.
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