TO: Students in GSBGEN315 Strategic Communication

FROM: JD Schramm

DATE: February 20, 2020

RE: Providing Writing Guidance: A Memo on the Quality of Memos

We all look forward to reading your Prudential recommendations to management about issues of concern about Mark's choice. To help you prepare your revision (and future memos), we wanted to provide you some further guidance on business writing since the rest of our work will focus on oral communication in this course. By formatting this as an actual memo we hope to both model and articulate key information about writing effective and persuasive business documents. You could apply nearly all of this information to letters, emails, reports, and proposals. We will address items consistent with that which we used to evaluate your memos:

• Style and Format
• Technique and Grammar
• Content and Analysis

Additionally, we've provided information about the Microsoft Word readability statistics and how to use these to help you improve your writing.

Deploy a Powerful, yet Standard, Business Memo Format

Don't simply try to meet our personal preferences for business writing, but rather learn and understand what is meant by standard business style. Employers will often provide specific expectations within a firm. Learn and follow what's required of you. Below find the memo standard we provided for this course:

• Single-spaced
• Double-space between paragraphs; no indentation
• Left justify your document (not full justification)
• Serif type (11 or 12 point)
• Subheadings to guide the reader
• Intro/Sections/Conclusion
• Bullets for lists of three or more items
• Numeric lists when indicating a process or priority of bulleted items

As we've all reviewed student memos over the years, we found several style elements that we feel are important to add or emphasize.

1. Use a serif font (like the one you are reading) for any text that is dense; you can use sans serif fonts for headings or subheadings (as we've also done), but not for body text.
2. Apply left justification (again like this), not full justification, which can stretch and scrunch your words; business readers are used to a “ragged right edge” in a memo.
3. Avoid using bullets in front of full paragraphs as it loses the impact of setting off a list of items you wish to emphasize; use bullets for short phrases without punctuation.
4. Resist the urge to place headings (or subheadings) on each and every paragraph in a document; this reduces the flow of the document and begins to feel like you are shouting at the reader.
5. Leave more space above a heading than you have below it; a heading should not “float” equally between two sections, but should be closer to the paragraph it modifies.

Verify Proper Grammar

While deploying a strong format, it is vital to avoid spelling or grammar errors, as they could hurt your credibility. Be sure to proof (and at times have another person proof) your document carefully. Avoid misspelled words, but also avoid mixing up commonly confused words (e.g., fewer or less; between or among, etc.). Numerous web-based resources can help you master these items. JD's personal favorite site is http://owl.english.purdue.edu/.

In class we discussed that the most effective business writing is:

• Active—avoid the passive voice
• Brief—why say in ten words what can be said in three?
• Clear—reduce misunderstandings with clarity

Continue to hone your skills in these critical three areas of technique. Develop your skills in writing in a way that's Active, Brief, and Clear. Passive voice, in particular, seems to be challenging for many students. Measure this by considering the vividness of your verbs. If you include a great deal of “is/are” or “was/were” constructions in your writing, then you're probably writing in the passive voice too often.

Craft Persuasive Content

It still holds true that while style and technique matter, content remains king. Know your communication objective up front and write each section, each paragraph, and each line with this persuasive intent in mind. Recommendations or requests should be:

• Easy to find. Offset the recommendations with bullets in a section where there are suggestions for change in the organization.
• Easy to follow. Begin each recommendation with a specific and clear verb so that you provide the readers with a “recipe” for improving their performance.

Looking at past memos for this particular assignment, we found that many students are general or vague about their request of the reader. The entire memo is about the advice that you want to be first read and then accepted. Everything should lead to this. Re-read your memo as if you were the HR leader: would you be engaged?

Consider the Guidance from MSWord Readability Tools

Activate this tool by following the instructions in MSWord; it produces readability statistics.

We recommend you shoot for the following ranges in your business writing.

These readability statistics serve only as guidelines; view these in context of each document's audience, intent, and message. They contain a margin of error, so only look at them for guidance, not as the final word on good writing. The readability index on this memo indicates a passive voice of 9 percent and an average sentence length of 17.2 words. (Trying to hold ourselves to the same standards we are expecting of you.)

Practice These Principles in All Your Affairs

Apply these concepts to all of your writing. Your career carries much more weight than this course. An executive or entrepreneur without the skill of strong persuasive writing will be at a severe disadvantage. Focusing on your written communication prowess will pay off in your future. As a short recap keep these principles in mind:

• Deploy a Powerful Business Memo Format
• Verify Proper Grammar
• Craft Persuasive Content
• Consider Readability Guidelines

Nearly all of this information applies to cover letters, emails, proposals, reports, and business letters, not just memos. Strong business writing will carry you far, while weak business writing may prove to be an obstacle for you. Please contact JD or your cohort coach if you have further questions.