iPedia Free Information Center

Information about Memorandum

For the record label, see .
Memorandum (also more commonly memo) is a brief written record or communication, used in an office, whether business, government, education institution or legal office. The plural form is either memoranda or memorandums. A memo has a specific format but may be specific to a single office, level of government, or other institution. Very specific memoranda in legal settings are Memorandum of Understanding, Memorandum of Agreement, Memorandum of Association, Private Placement Memoranda, and Confidential Offering Memoranda.

Format

A memorandum is written using a specific format, usually a format accepted by the office in which the memorandum is to be used. The usual structure for a memorandum includes some or all of the following:

MEMORANDUM

TO: The person receiving the memorandum

FROM: The person writing the memorandum

DATE: Usually a formal manner of writing the date, for example 6 February 1995

SUBJECT: A short title descriptive of the topic in discussion in the memorandum



Introduction: explaining why the memorandum has been written and what topic the memorandum will discuss.

Body: discussing the topic in detail--explaining what exactly and itemizing when possible.

Conclusion: explaining what will or should happen next, when the follow-up will occur and why the date is important.





Regardless of what a memorandum is about, each memo should be about a single idea, subject, or report. This is the accepted format of a memo so that when a memo is actioned the single sheet of paper, or in the electronic office a single email can be filed in the most appropriate location, and the action can be recorded on the memo in some way to indicate completion of that item. In addition, some offices restrict the size of a memo to just one page, although this is difficult to handle in an electronic office; in those settings memos are often restricted to 500 words or less.

Body

Organization features of a memorandum tend to vary according to the context. For example, one of the ways to organize a legal memo would feature an organization as follows:

  • Heading
  • A summary of relevant facts
  • Succinct identification of legal issues
  • A discussion of law relevant to the legal issues, and application of that law to the facts
  • A conclusion that is responsive to the legal issues.


On the other hand, [1] Gerson and Gerson, Technical Writing: Process and Product, 5e, give some general advice in structuring memoranda. For Dobel et al., there are three important steps every memo must display for good organization and embedding a strong argument: first, the subject must be introduced and any terms that may not be clear should be defined, second, the argument needs to be laid out step-by-step so that the reasoning can be followed, and third, connect the ideas and bring the text to a conclusion.

Language

There are a number of writers in educational settings who give law students, those entering the armed forces, students of journalism, advice on the type of language to be used in memoranda. In summary, the language in memoranda should be:
  • Directed to your audience - memos are usually directed at decision makers and usually you write for an individual or a group to help them make a decision. To influence decision makers you need to give considerable thought to who they are and what they understand and what powers they have to be able to take action relating to your memo.
  • Simple and direct - complex sentence structure and organization is a sure sign of confusion or a hidden agenda. A well-written memo will state your case in simple steps; even if you have a very complex argument, or the subject is highly technical and you are writing for managers, you need to use the simplest words and state your case in simple sentences.
  • Word choice - often the simpler and more common words are going to get good action. -technical terms need to be eliminated: so instead of using "facilitate" you could use "help" or "assist", and "indicate" could be simpler with "say" or "show".
  • Clearly assign action and responsibility — bureaucrats are notorious for obscuring responsibility by using words like the imperial "we" or passive voice: e.g. "We have always argued that rapid transit is the best long-run solution to urban transportation problems, given finite energy resource. In the short run, though, we are faced with the immediate problem of how to accommodate the city to the automobile." Notice how the first "we" communicates what the writer thinks, and the second "we" to implicate the reader in a point of view.
Most decision makers, who are the audience for memos, prefer clarity, conciseness and accuracy. Even with the more rushed world in which we live, memos (in the form of emails) do not succeed in engaging action, simply because the email was written with little thought, poor direction to your reading audience and little to no proof reading.

See also

External References

Communication is a process that allows organisms to exchange information by several methods. Communication requires that all parties understand a common language that is exchanged with each other.
..... Click the link for more information.
An office is generally a room or other area in which people work, but may also denote a position within an organisation with specific duties attached to it (see hi officer, office-holder, official); the latter is in fact an earlier usage, office as place originally referring to the
..... Click the link for more information.
Government Offices are the primary means by which a wide range of policies and programmes of the Government of the United Kingdom are delivered in the regions of England. In 2004/2005 Government Offices were responsible for managing over £9bn of expenditure.
..... Click the link for more information.
LAW may refer to:
  • Lightweight Anti-tank Weapon, like the M72 LAW (US Army) and the LAW 80 (British Army)
  • Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights (also known as LAW)
  • League of American Bicyclists, formerly known as the League of American Wheelmen

..... Click the link for more information.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) is a legal document describing a bilateral or multilateral agreement between parties. It expresses a convergence of will between the parties, indicating an intended common line of action and may not imply a legal commitment.
..... Click the link for more information.
A memorandum of agreement (MOA) or cooperative agreement is a document written between parties to cooperatively work together on an agreed upon project or meet an agreed upon objective. The purpose of an MOA is to have a written understanding of the agreement between parties.
..... Click the link for more information.
The Memorandum of Association of a company, often simply called the Memorandum, is the document that governs the relationship between the company and the outside world.
..... Click the link for more information.
Technical terminology is the specialized vocabulary of a field. These terms have specific definitions within the field, which is not necessarily the same as their meaning in common use.
..... Click the link for more information.
A definition is a statement of the meaning of a term, word or phrase. The term to be defined is known as the definiendum (Latin: that which is to be defined).
..... Click the link for more information.
Only a valid argument with true premises must have a true conclusion.
The validity of an argument depends on its form, not on the truth or falsity of its premises and conclusions. Logic seeks to discover the forms of valid arguments.
..... Click the link for more information.
Reasoning is the mental (cognitive) process of looking for reasons for beliefs, conclusions, actions or feelings.[1] Humans have the ability to engage in reasoning about their own reasoning using introspection.
..... Click the link for more information.
A conclusion is a final proposition, which is arrived at after the consideration of evidence, arguments or premises.

Research

Main article: Abstract (summary)

Scientific Research


..... Click the link for more information.
Education encompasses teaching and learning specific skills, and also something less tangible but more profound: the imparting of knowledge, positive judgment and well-developed wisdom.
..... Click the link for more information.
LAW may refer to:
  • Lightweight Anti-tank Weapon, like the M72 LAW (US Army) and the LAW 80 (British Army)
  • Palestinian Society for the Protection of Human Rights (also known as LAW)
  • League of American Bicyclists, formerly known as the League of American Wheelmen

..... Click the link for more information.
An audience is a group of people who participate in an experience or encounter a work of art, literature, theatre, music or academics in any medium. Audience members participate in different ways in different kinds of art; some events invite overt audience participation and others
..... Click the link for more information.
Decision making is the cognitive process leading to the selection of a course of action among variations. Every decision making process produces a final choice. It can be an action or an opinion. It begins when we need to do something but know not what.
..... Click the link for more information.
Influence is a term that refers to the ability to indirectly control or affect the actions of other people or things. The meaning of influence therefore depends on who or what is being affected, and to what end.
..... Click the link for more information.
In linguistics, a sentence is a unit of language, characterized in most languages by the presence of a finite verb. For example, "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
..... Click the link for more information.
Hidden Agenda is the name of several different things:
  • Hidden agenda - an idiomatic phrase used to refer to the subtext which discretely drives a conversation, meeting or other activity
  • Hidden Agenda (game) is a computer game from 1988.

..... Click the link for more information.
Only a valid argument with true premises must have a true conclusion.
The validity of an argument depends on its form, not on the truth or falsity of its premises and conclusions. Logic seeks to discover the forms of valid arguments.
..... Click the link for more information.
Technical may refer to:
  • The use of technology in a specific or precise way
  • Vocational education, often known as "technical education"
  • Technical (fighting vehicle), an improvised fighting vehicle often used in civil conflict

..... Click the link for more information.
ManaGeR (MGR) is a graphical window system. The MGR server provides a builtin window manager and windowed graphics terminal emulation on color and monochrome bitmap displays.
..... Click the link for more information.
Elimination can refer to several things:
  • In chemistry, an elimination reaction is a one- or two-step organic reaction in which two functional groups combine to form a larger organic product with a new bond such as an ester, amide, or ether.

..... Click the link for more information.
bureaucrat is a member of a bureaucracy, usually within an institution of the government.

The term "bureaucrat" today has largely accepted negative connotations, so those who are the members of a governmental bureaucracy usually prefer terms such as civil servant or
..... Click the link for more information.
An audience is a group of people who participate in an experience or encounter a work of art, literature, theatre, music or academics in any medium. Audience members participate in different ways in different kinds of art; some events invite overt audience participation and others
..... Click the link for more information.
Clarity is the property of being clear or transparent.

Clarity can refer to one's ability to clearly visualize an object or concept, as in thought, understanding, and the "mind's eye", as well as the traditional notion of visual perception, that is, with the
..... Click the link for more information.
Concise is a municipality in the district of Grandson in the canton of Vaud in Switzerland.

External links

  • Concise in German , French or

..... Click the link for more information.
accuracy is the degree of conformity of a measured or calculated quantity to its actual (true) value. Accuracy is closely related to precision, also called reproducibility or repeatability, the degree to which further measurements or calculations show the same or similar
..... Click the link for more information.
E-mail (short for electronic mail; often also abbreviated as e-mail, email or simply mail) is a store and forward method of composing, sending, storing, and receiving messages over electronic communication systems.
..... Click the link for more information.
Proofreading traditionally means reading a proof copy of a text in order to detect and correct any errors. Modern proofreading often requires reading copy at earlier stages as well.
..... Click the link for more information.


This article is copied from an article on Wikipedia.org - the free encyclopedia created and edited by online user community. The text was not checked or edited by anyone on our staff. Although the vast majority of the wikipedia encyclopedia articles provide accurate and timely information please do not assume the accuracy of any particular article. This article is distributed under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License.
Herod_Archelaus


page counter