Memo Format for MBA assignments:
From: Student
To: Instructor
Subject: How to write an effective memo
Date: Submission date
The purpose of this memo is to offer guidance to students about how to write excellent memos.
Preparation and Focus: Good writing starts with proper preparation. What do you want to communicate to the reader? Think about that sentence for a moment. It tells you that you must have three things solidly in hand before you can write well.
1. First, you have an audience to consider. Who is the reader? In business, it might be your boss, your employees, your customers, etc. You are not writing in your diary. You are writing for a particular audience, and you have a purpose in mind. You will write differently for different readers. In this course, the reader will be an instructor. It might be an instructor who is playing the role of someone else in business, but it is still an instructor. Your instructor wants to see that you have grasped the learning objectives.
2. Second, you have to know what it is you want to say. That implies you have thought about the assignment, developed a key idea, (thesis), and outlined the concepts you will present in support of that thesis. There is nothing revolutionary in these ideas. You have heard them from every one of your English teachers or writing coaches.
3. Third, what you intend to communicate. Communication is hard. It isn’t good enough just to transmit good ideas. You have to transmit them in a way that the reader will understand them and even be persuaded by them.
Format: For any requirement, in business or elsewhere, it is important to learn if a particular format is expected or required. In general, we will want all written submissions to be double-spaced documents with 12-pitch Times New Roman font and 1½ inch margins. The word count, not counting references, with these requirements is approximately 820 words (3-page memo). Pay attention to page...