Key issues of effective memo writing.
First at all, I have never used this kind of document in my field. So, I´m not used to read and deal with memos. Although, I strongly believe it´s a very useful document.
When we are writing a memo we have to keep in mind the goal of the document; It is: helping others to make a decision giving the arguments to do it. For this reason, a memo should be a brief and clear document. The writers should be accurate , and they should be honest and avoid to hide bad news.
We should think in who needs to read our documents, how much info they need and adapt our text to them.
Also, we have to consider the next points:
STYLE:
It must be written in a formal style, and the writer should avoid chitchat, flowery words, jargon and so on. The style of the document reflects the mind of the author. A sloppy document shows an unreflective person and the reader hardly take it seriously.
Of course, neither a biased language nor something like that is appropriated in this kind of document.
There is a risk to go to the other side and try to use to much complex words and sentences. It´s not good at all, because this could difficult the understanding of the text. it´s much better using common words and avoid bureaucratic terms.
I´ve found interesting the advice of using an active voice and avoid the passive voice.
SCRUCTURE:
The organization of the information is an important subject too.
In my opinion, the best way is:
1. Explain the reader "what you are going to say".
This section allows the reader to be ready to examine the subject and the arguments.
2. Say it.
In this section, you can explain the arguments and the details.
A good way to sort the arguments is the "inverted pyramid". This means you goes from the most important idea to the less.
3. Tell the reader "what you have said".
This is a little summed up and here you move to action to the reader.
To sum up, we can say a memo should be a brief, formal, polite and easy reading document.