#BUSINESS MEMO FORMAT PROFESSIONAL#

The objective of an informational memo is to reveal new or refresh old information in a manner that benefits or brings the reader up to date. The SUBJECT field can be left alone for now. While you are at it fill in the FROM and DATE fields. Decide what level of formality you are going to use and fill in the TO field. The degree, or closeness of your working relationship, combined with the nature of the information you are giving, will determine the level of formality that you should use in your heading.įill in the heading of your memo. On occasion, however, they will be from outside your organization and have strong internal ties, a subcontractor for instance, whose involvement in a joint project requires that you regularly communicate. In most cases they are people from within your organization that share a need for the same information. Regardless of whether you have one, several, or many, you know who they are because they work with you. Informational memos are often, though not always, intended for multiple readers. Besides the actual information, the scope of a memo must provide a reason for why the information contained in it is relevant to the reader. The objective is to convey one or more pieces of information that relate specifically to the topic in the subject line. Informational MemosĪn informational memo is an in-house communication addressed to one or more individuals. Each guide provides instruction, video commentary, and samples.

Click the links on the writing guides menu bar at left for tutorials on writing informational and instructional business memos. When a preprinted memo sheet is not available, one can easily be designed.

#BUSINESS MEMO FORMAT PROFESSIONAL#

Besides having a professional look and feel, preprinted memo sheets often provide specialized information fields that accommodate specific procedures for expediting in-house communications.

When a business organization designs an official letterhead it often also designs an official memo sheet, complete with a company logo featured at the top of the page. In short, they speed up the daily business of doing business they keep people who need to be kept in the know, in the know. As historical documents they are often referred to when writing reports or resolving disputes regarding past activities. They record daily activities and eliminate the need for time-consuming meetings. Their scope should be limited to a single topic so that the reader will 'get the message' quickly and, if necessary, take an action.Ĭonfined to a single topic, each interoffice, interdepartmental and company wide memo becomes part of the institutional memory of an organization. Their objective is to deliver information or instructions and writing them is no-nonsense, nose to the grindstone writing. Unlike letters, the external communications of a company, business memos are an internal form of communication and it is standard practice to save them. Once acted upon, a memo is often thrown away. For example, a list of groceries to be picked up on your way home from work is a memo, a simple list of things to be remembered later. A memo, short for the word memorandum, comes from the Latin word memorandus, which means, 'to be remembered.' It is a compact written message designed to help someone remember something.

Business memo format