Chapter 4

Writing Routine Business Correspondence

Memos, Faxes, E-Mails, IMs, and Blogs

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■ Memos, faxes, e-mails, IMs, and blogs are
the types of writing you will do most
frequently on the job.
■ These five forms of business
correspondence are quick, easy, and
effective ways for a company to
communicate internally as well as
externally.

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What Memos, Faxes, E-Mails, IMs, and Blog Posts Have
in Common

■ Although memos, faxes, e-mails, IMs, and blog

posts are very different types of correspondence,
they share the following characteristics:
1. They give busy readers information quickly. While the messages
they contain can be about any topic in the world of work, day-to-
day activities and operations—sales and product information,
policy and schedule changes, progress reports, orders,
troubleshooting problems, and so forth.
2. Each of these types of correspondence is streamlined for the
busy world of work. Unlike letters, proposals, or reports, which
can be long and detailed and contain formal parts and sections.

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3. They are informal. Compared to letters or reports, these kinds of
routine correspondence are not as formal.
4. Even though they are routine, they still demand a great deal of
thought and time. Although memos, faxes, e-mails, blogs, and
IMs are less formal than, for instance, a letter to a client, they all
must be written clearly and with correct grammar and
punctuation.
5. They represent your company. These routine messages are
reflections of your company’s image and your professionalism.
Your success on your writing an unbiased, ethically proper e-mail
or blog post as it does on your technical expertise.

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Memos
■ Memorandum, usually shortened to memo, is a Latin word for
“something to be remembered.” Memos are brief, informal, but
can contain official announcements that serve a variety of
functions, including:
■ making an announcement
■ providing instructions
■ clarifying a policy, procedure, or issue
■ changing a policy or procedure
■ alerting employees to a problem or issue
■ offering general information
■ providing a brief summary
■ making a request
■ offering suggestions or recommendations
■ providing a record of an important matter
■ confirming an outcome
■ calling a meeting
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■ Memos are usually written for an in-house
audience, although the memo format can be used
for documents sent outside a company, such as
short reports or proposals or for cover notes for
longer reports.

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Memo Protocol

■ As with any other forms of business

correspondence, memos reflect a company’s image
and therefore must follow the company’s protocol
— accepted ways in which in-house
communications are formatted, organized, written,
and routed. In fact, some companies offer protocol
seminars on how employees are to prepare
communications.
■ Use these common sense guidelines when writing
memos:

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■ 1. Be timely. Don’t send out a memo at the last
minute, particularly if the purpose of the memo is
to announce a meeting.
■ 2. Be professional. The informal nature of memos
doesn’t mean that you should compose a poorly
organized, poorly written, and/or factually
inaccurate memo or one that contains misspellings
or punctuation errors.

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■ 3. Be tactful. Be polite and diplomatic, not curt
and bossy. Notice how Janet Hempstead adopts
a firm tone regarding an important safety issue.
■ 4. Send memos to the appropriate personnel.
Don’t send copies of a memo to people who
don’t need to read them.

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Memo Audience, Style, and Tone
■ Before you write your memo, think about
your audience’s needs.
■ The subject of the memo will answer the
question what.
■ You also need to determine the answers to
the questions when, who, where, and why,
and consider any questions about cost and
technology your audience may have

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■ 1. When? When did it happen? Is it on, ahead of, or
behind schedule? Does it work with workers’/managers’
schedules?
■ 2. Who? Who is involved? Who is affected by it? How
many people are involved?
■ 3. Where? Where did it take place or will it take place?
Where is answered.
■ 4. Why? Why is it an important topic? Why is clearly?
■ 5. Costs? How much will it cost? Will the cost be lower or
higher than a competitor’s costs? Will the costs be above
or below projections? Is the cost worth it?
■ 6. Technology? What technology is involved? Why is the
technology needed?

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Memo Format
■ Memos vary in format. Some companies use
standard, printed forms, while others have their
names (letterhead) printed on their memos.
■ As we saw, you can also create a memo by
including the necessary parts in an e-mail.

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Basically, the memo consists of two parts:
-The header, or the identifying information at the top,
and the message itself. The header includes these easily
recognized parts: To, From, Date, and Subject lines.
■ TO: FROM: DATE: SUBJECT:
■ Aileen Kelly, Chief Computer Analyst Stacy Kaufman,
Operator, Level II January 30, 2009 Progress report on
the fall schedule Or you can use a memo template in
your word processing program that will list these
headings, as follows, to save time.
■ TO:
■ FROM: Linda Cowan DATE: October 4, 2010 RE: (Enter
subject.)

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Strategies for Organizing a Memo

■ Don’t just dash your memo off. Take a few minutes to

outline and draft what you need to say and to decide in
what order it needs to be presented.
■ Organize your memos so that readers can find
information quickly and act on it promptly. For longer,
more complex communications, such as the memos.
■ Your message might be divided into three parts:
(1) introduction, (2) discussion, and (3) conclusion.
Regardless of how short or long your memo is, recall the
three P’s for success — plan what to say; polish what you
wrote before you send it; and proofread everything.

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Introduction

The introduction of your memo should do the following:

• Tell readers clearly about the problem, procedure,
question, or policy that prompted you to write.
• Explain briefly any background information the reader
needs to know.
• Be specific about what you are going to accomplish in
your memo.
• Do not hesitate to come right out and say, “This memo
explains new e-mail security procedures” or “This
memo summarizes the action taken in Evansville to re-
duce air pollution.”

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Discussion
In the discussion section (the body) of your
memo, help readers in these ways:
• State why a problem or procedure is
important, who will be affected by it, and
what caused it and why.
• Indicate why and what changes are
necessary.
• Give precise dates, times, locations, and
costs.
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 Conclusion
In your conclusion, state specifically how you want
the reader to respond to your memo. You can do one
or more of the following:
• Ask readers to call you if they have any questions
• Request are ply in writing, over the telephone,
viae-mail, or in person—by a specific date.
• Provide a list of recommendations that the
readers are to accept, revise, or reject.

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 Thank you…

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