Page 63 the vast majority of families in the United States are expected to have e-mail addresses. The use of e-mail to communicate effectively, to reduce meetings, and to save time and money on both local and international levels cannot be ignored. Spend time learning how to improve your e-mail messages and how to use this means of communication more effectively. In the long run, you'll save time and money—and produce the results you want.
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• Long
• Hard to skim
• Hard to understand, difficult to read, or poorly written
• Unprofessional in appearance
This implies that you should create memos and e-mail that:
• Are short
• Have clear objectives and subject lines
• Are well organized
• Have visual cues to the organization
• Use sufficient supporting data
• Are clear and concise
Creating Good Memos
It's easy to improve memos by applying the following quick-and-easy suggestions:
• Have the right content: Define your objective and analyze your audience (see Chapters 11 and 12) to be sure you meet the needs of your readers and your own purpose in writing the memo.
• Avoid excessive detail: Make it easy on your readers to do their work by including only what is needed—don't write novels!
• Write a memo readers can skim: Use good organizational cues and visual design so your readers don't have to read every word you write.
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A Changing Distinction between Memos and E-Mail
Traditionally, there has been a very simple dichotomy between memos and business letters. Memos have been internal documents and business letters have been external documents.
That distinction of internal and external documents has become blurred as we all begin to use e- mail—for internal and external communication—more frequently.
This is good, but can also be problematic. It's good if it leads to quicker and less complicated communication. It can be problematic when people fail to realize that their e-mailed memos are not internal documents that are automatically confidential or protected or limited in circulation.
When memos are sent as e-mails to people outside of a company (i.e., external documents), they functionally become business letters, and consequently they must be held to a higher standard during all phases of their creation, editing, distribution, and life cycle. Once you send out a business letter or an e-mail, that message is no longer under your control. As a result, you need to pay more attention to your prewriting, editing, and postwriting processes.
• Use a check-off line for __ action, __ information, or __ response.
• Write clear, focused, and forthright memos. (Don't tell a story.)
• Put your recommendations and key points up front.
• Use useful, concise, supporting detail.
• Use informative, visually sequenced heads and subheads.
• Use lists and bullets.
• Use a personal tone.
The late Malcolm Forbes 2 also made a number of excellent suggestions on how to write good memos and letters:
• Know what you want; state it in one sentence.
• Plunge right in; give the purpose of the letter in the first paragraph.
• Write so it's enjoyable; use a reader's viewpoint; be natural; be positive.
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• Give it your best; make it visually appealing; make it short; emphasize your points.
• State what you're going to do; state what you want done. Sum it up and get out.
Sample Memos
Many people love to use templates to design their documents. Most word processors now offer style sheet options that include pull-down boxes with pre-designed heads and subheads. These are very useful, and they can be even more useful when you use those heads and subheads to emphasize your organization, your logic, and the structure of your messages. To help you visualize how to improve memos (and e-mail), we provide sample memos in Appendixes C and D that show common problems and effective solutions. Review these samples to help you identify how you and your team can strengthen documents.
Consider the sample memos in Figures 7.1 to 7.4. The first memo (Figure 7.1) is poorly organized and written. The second (Figure 7.2) is a revision, which is both well organized and well written, but illustrates that the effort spent to create an artificially precise memo is not always the way to handle the task. Calling
Figure 7.1
A poorly written memo with muddled organization. Can you afford to send it?
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Figure 7.2
Revised memo with excellent organization and visual cues.
But can you afford the time to write it? It may be faster to order via the Internet, for example.
Figure 7.3 Memo with no visual cues.
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Figure 7.4
Revised memo with simple visual cues—a bulleted list and a subhead.
the bookstore, or using the Internet (amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com), for example, would be a quicker and easier solution than drafting, revising, and following up with another memo.
Figures 7.3 to 7.4 illustrate how memos that are sent as e-mail can be quickly and easily improved by adding simple visual cues, such as lists, bullet points, and subheads that indicate the next action to be taken.
End Point
Memos are becoming more widely used with the advent of e-mail. Memos, which traditionally were internal documents, are being transformed into external documents that replace more traditional business letters. Because of that, it is important to use both document management systems (Chapter 2) and writing and edit-
Page 71 ing processes (Chapter 3) to ensure that the content is appropriate and will not lead to legal liability. Further, the use of a writing and editing process can ensure that memos incorporate appropriate organizational plans and visual cues that make them easier to create and to read.
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