Memorandum

Memorandum (also more commonly memo) is a brief written record of communication, used in office, whether
business, government, education institution or legal office(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memorandum).
The usual structure for a memo includes some or all of the following:

TO : the person or group receiving the memo(recipient).

FROM : the person writing the memo (sender).
C.C. : (Carbon Copy) the person or group who should be informed about the memo
DATE : usually a formal manner of writing the date(month/day/year). For example: March 22nd, 2010
SUBJECT : a short specific topic discussed in the memo. This should be in bold.
(instead of SUBJECT:, it’s also acceptable to use
RE : which means regarding or reference)
Introduction : explains why the memo has been written and what topic will discuss. You can start your idea of
this introduction by responding this sentence,” I’m writing because..”. When the memo is long, the introduction
is in a single paragraph as an executive summary of the memo itself

EXERCISE 1
.
MEMO
Date : May 3, 2001
To : Tom Cook
From : Robert Stone
RE : Monthly Reports
Thank you all for turning in your monthly reports on time. I realize the reports are time-
consuming to write, but the information you provide is very useful in managing projects.

Here are a few guidelines for next month’s report. Please remember not to use
formatting when writing these reports. In other words, no boldface, no underlining, no
italics, and no bullet points (.). Also, it possible, could you please a 12-point font size?

Thank you.

1. Who writes the Memo?

2. Whom is the Memo written to?
3. When was the Memo written?
4. What is the main idea of the first paragraph?
5. Write the guidelines mentioned on the Memo!

EXERCISE 2
To : All of the employees.
From : Mr. Andrew Gillard. (HRD Manager).
Date : February 23rd, 2012
Subject: The salary and insurance raising

I’m writing to inform you that there will be salary and insurance raising for all of the company employees
starting on April 2012. Therefore, the company needs to renew the data of the employees. I want
everyone to fill in the form of the personal information and submit it to Ms Lillian Myers before March 15 th,
2012. You can take the form in the administration officer’s room starting from February 24th, 2012. Don’t
forget to enclose the copied of your ID with your form. If you have any questions or need further
information, please contact the coordinator of your division.
Task 2
Find the menaing of the words.
1. employee 6. renew
2. salary 7. fill
3. insurance 8. submit
4. inform 9.enclose
5. raising 10. further
Task 3
Answer the questions based on the memo above.
1. Who is the writer of the memo?
2. Who is the recipient of the memo?
3. When is the memo written?
4. What is the purpose of writing the memo?
5. What does the recipient of the memo have to do?