Introduction

This chapter is an overview of Project 1 in Professional and Technical Writing: the Course Goals Memo. Included are the assignment sheet and a brief overview of memo genre conventions.

Setting Personal Course Goals

At the beginning of class, our primary objectives are to learn about the structure and format of the class (through your syllabus, schedule, grading contract, and other class materials) and to learn more about professional and technical writing as an “area,” or subdiscipline, of writing studies. Once you have an idea of what professional and technical writing is and how it can be used, you’ll have a clearer idea about what you can use your time in the course to accomplish.

During Weeks 1-2, you will complete your first project: the Course Goals Memo. In this project, you’ll think through your major and career goals and compare those to the course objectives for English 30503. Then, you’ll select a few goals for yourself – ones you can accomplish during the time we have together. Once you’ve chosen your goals, you will write them down in memo format. This chapter also provides guidance and step-by-step instructions for writing memos.

Project 1: Course Goals Memo^[1]

The purpose of this assignment is to set personal goals for your semester in Professional and Technical Writing and to practice a common technical writing genre, the memo. To do this, you will use course documents (like the syllabus, grading contract, and textbook) to brainstorm about what you want to accomplish this semester and how you might do it. You will introduce yourself and your reasons for taking ENGL 30503, set 3-4 goals for yourself, and briefly discuss your plan for meeting each goal.

Completion Requirement: Your Course Goals Memo should be 500-750 words.

Project Steps

In Week 1, you’ll complete an orientation to the course and to technical communication. This information will help you to understand the course’s learning objectives and to think about how technical communication skills will fit into your future education or career goals. During Week 2, you will learn about ethics in technical communication, which will provide further information about what technical communication is and what it helps us to do.

You should take some time to brainstorm about what you want to accomplish during the course, now that you know more about the subject.

Questions for Drafting:

• After reading the goals and objectives listed in the course syllabus, which ones most closely match your personal goals for the semester?
• What do you know about how your major or chosen career path uses writing? How could you use this class to focus on those skills?
• What are your weaknesses as a writer? Where do you struggle? How could you use this class to improve your skills?
• What specific actions will you take to accomplish each goal?
• What could your instructor or peers do to help you accomplish your goals? For instance, what type of feedback is most helpful to you? Where in the writing process do you struggle the most?

Think beyond grammar! Most of us have grammar and mechanical skills we could improve, but professional and technical writing encompasses many more skills! Do you need to learn more about how to use a text or image editor to do document design? Are you a wordy writer who could use practice with concise, plain language? Do you have trouble getting started when you’re writing? Do you struggle to know when you’re done with a writing project?

After you’ve done some brainstorming, decide which 3-4 goals are most important and accomplishable to you. These are the goals you will write about in your Course Goals Memo.

The next step is to write your course goals in memo format. You can find more information about memos as well as models and templates in your textbook. This information is located in Chapter 3: Setting Your Course Goals.

Due Dates

Final Submission Checklist

[Give instructions to students on how to format their assignments here.]

Course Goals Memo

• I have introduced myself and explained my reasons for taking ENGL 30503.
• I have stated 3-4 goals I hope to accomplish this semester and listed practical steps I will take to work towards them.
• I have used memo formatting.

Memo Genre Conventions^[2]

Context, Audience, and Purpose for Memos

Memos are used for communication within organizations (like companies) to establish a written record of correspondence. They may be distributed in the bodies of emails, in email attachments, or in paper form and can convey a certain level of authority and formality when used to deliver routine messages; progress, incident, and other short reports; employee safety policies; company statements; brief internal proposals; and other types of in-house information. They can also be posted in workplaces to keep employees who do not have ready access to email up to date on matters of interest.

Memo Organization

Everyday memos follow an introduction, body, and conclusion organizational format. An introduction indicates the subject of a document and helps guide readers through the document. It should establish context for the rest of the piece, in other words. The body section of a memo delivers the details of the communication, with each body paragraph focusing on one main point that is articulated in a topic sentence. The conclusion unifies the document by emphasizing its central message and reiterating key ideas. The sample memo in Figure 1 follows this introduction, body, and conclusion structure.

Figure 1. An example memo with a clear organizational structure

This sample memo’s organizational structure and specific and informative subject line help to clearly reveal its message to readers.

Like letters and emails, memos may deliver both routine messages and those that have the potential to evoke more emotive responses on the part of recipients. When writing correspondence, it is thus crucial to consider audience reactions and how you can convey important information in a forthright but polite manner. To this end, you may decide to use a direct organizational approach, which delivers the main message of a document right away, to call readers’ attention to matters of importance. When using this pattern, a writer begins with the main point of the document, follows with an explanation of details, and ends with a goodwill closing that aims to build a positive relationship with readers. Figure 2 shows an example of the direct organizational approach at work in a memo.

Figure 2. A memo that uses the direct organizational approach to deliver a timely message

As Figure 2 illustrates, the direct organizational approach delivers important news right away. In contrast, the indirect organizational approach reveals the core message of a piece of correspondence gradually as the document progresses and can be used to convey particularly sensitive news. A document using the indirect organizational approach begins with context setting, provides an explanation that leads into the main point, and ends with a goodwill closing. The example memo in Figure 3 follows an indirect organizational approach.

Figure 3. A memo that uses the indirect organizational approach to deliver sensitive news

Though the message in Figure 3 would likely evoke an emotional response from employees, the indirect organizational approach is intended to soften the blow for readers.

Although the points about memo organization discussed thus far may apply to correspondence written in many western countries, take into consideration that different cultures have differing expectations regarding the way information is presented in memos, letters, and emails. For instance, the direct organizational approach may be construed as impolite in some eastern countries where a more nuanced style of communication is favored for messages. As with all technical writing, keep readers at the forefront of your mind when preparing correspondence to help navigate decisions about document organization and content, and when in doubt about what audiences expect, research your target readership. Know who the readers are so you can tailor your message in order to create purpose-driven content that they will respond to.

Memo Formatting     

Formatting conventions often help to define genres, and memos are no different in this regard. The following steps describe how to format a standard memo.

1. Place the word Memo or Memorandum (sans italics) at the top of the page, centered or flush left.
2. Insert one blank line of white space.
3. Insert a To: line (sans italics and flush left), and list recipients alphabetically by last name or in descending order of organizational rank.
4. Insert a From: line (sans italics and flush left) to indicate who is sending the memo.
5. Insert a Date: line (sans italics and flush left), and list the full date (e.g., May 15, 2020, or 15 May 2020, but not May 15th, 2020) rather than the numeric date abbreviation for clarity.
6. Insert a specific Subject: line (sans italics and flush left) to clearly identify the memo’s topic. The subject line for a memo, letter, or email functions as its title, and readers should know what the correspondence is about just by looking at the subject line.
7. Align the information after the colons in the memo header using the keyboard tab key. This formatting detail takes into account the design principle of alignment, which specifies that like items should be lined up with one another to establish visual consistency and to help readers see them easily.
8. Insert one blank line of white space after the memo header.
9. Type the memo paragraphs, each separated with one full line of white space.

In addition to the design points specified in the steps, memos are block formatted, meaning they are single spaced, left aligned, and feature a blank line of white space after each paragraph rather than indented paragraphs. Writers generally use one-inch margins when producing memos and may also include informative headings to give the documents visual structure. Follow the design standards outlined here to ensure readers immediately identify your document as a memo.

Formatting features, such as bold text and lists, can cue readers’ attention to important information when used sparingly in memos. Notice, for instance, how Figure 4, which is adapted from the Writing and Communication Centre, University of Waterloo (n.d., p. 4), employs a list to highlight questions for memo readers.

Figure 4. A memo that uses a bullet list to draw readers’ attention to important content

Lists, such as the one in Figure 4, can be used in both memos and letters to direct readers to key pieces of information.

Conclusion

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References

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