Memorandums & Report Writting

Memorandums
A memorandum is an informal report that is usually five pages or fewer in length. Confirm this detail in your company, however; some companies want memos to be only one page long.

Common ways to present information in a memo include:

• Inverted pyramid format (most to least important ideas)
• Prioritization format (priorities listed in order of importance)
• Problem-solution format
• Compare-and-contrast format
• Chronological order

Two other memo tips:

• Use Subject or Re lines that are as informative as possible.
• Alphabetize lists of comparable words, products, or people – especially people – to avoid distracting your readers with “ranking” games.

Reports
A report is longer, more detailed, and often more formal than a memo. Reports should include, at a minimum, the following components:

• Table of contents
• Executive summary
• Body
• Conclusion
• Appendix
• Bibliography

The format or structure of a report is often prescribed precisely by company rules or convention. Before you begin, confirm your company’s format.

If appropriate, include a recommended course of action in the concluding section.

In a report that includes recommendations, it can be quite effective to present the recommendations at the beginning of the document, and then build support for them in the following text. Readers always want to know “Why?” This format leads them to their answers.

Because reports are so dense, they can be difficult to follow. Therefore, it’s particularly important to use lots of headings and subheadings in reports, as well as to leave ample margins and space between topics and to number every page.

In writing formal documents, keep your language as clear and straightforward as in more casual documents, with two adjustments:

• Avoid contractions.
• Avoid addressing the reader directly, with conversational references to you.

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