Fax Messages and E-Mails

Memos

In any position you hold in business, you will both send and receive memos. Memos are the documents most often exchanged among people within organizations. However, sometimes you may be sending memos to individuals in other branches of your company.

People within organizations primarily and regularly communicate by writing memos. Memos let others in the company know what they are doing to keep the business running smoothly.

As with letters, business people use memos for three communication purposes:

1. To inform others. You will use memos to inform people about meetings, to report the status of various projects in which you and others are involved, to inform about company policies and procedures, and to inform about personnel matters. For these types of memos, you will use the direct-deductive approach for structuring the information you present. That means you will start your memo by stating your purpose or main idea and send details and explanations to help the reader understand the purpose or main idea.

2. To deliver bad news. For example, you may need to notify an employee of a transfer to another department, deny an employee a promotion or dismiss an employee.

3. To persuade others. You may write memos to persuadesomeone

• to implement an idea you have

•to follow company policy

• to use supplies more efficiently

• to change undesired behaviours

• to purchase equipment

• to change the way the company is operating or doing business

Unlike letters, memos are most often written by and to people within your organization. Since you likely know and work with these individuals, you can write your memos in a more informal and candid way. Many people will appreciate knowing the purpose or "bottom line" right away. Regardless of the nature of the message, they may still want you to use the direct-deductive approach most of the time. Your in-house readers may not appreciate the indirect-inductive approach, which often works better on people outside the company, whom you most often do not know personally. This approach presents details and explanation first that eventually lead to the purpose or main idea of the message. People outside the company often require a gentler approach when you are delivering bad news or seeking to persuade.

Writing effective memos can help you accomplish your purposes and get the action you seek. In addition, this ability can enhance your standing in the company and help you develop your career and promotional opportunities. Your memos say a lot about you and your abilities and accomplishments and create the impressions that others will use to judge you and the quality of your work.

You will learn strategies for writing good memos. You will also learn about electronic mail (e-mail), as you will be producing and transmitting company memos to others via computer. You will read about other applications of electronic communication so you can effectively transmit and gather information outside your company. This technology will enhance your ability to communicate in a more effective and efficient way.

Memo Formats

Memos have different layouts, and different companies have their own styles and sometimes specific forms. Most memos include the following elements:

• Title. Th e word MEMORANDUM or MEMO (or something to that effect) is usually centred at the top of the page or placed at the left margin.

• «To» and «From» Lines. The memo always includes lines using the words To and From to quickly show who the addressee and sender are. Titles are not used as the parties usually know one another and because this in-house communication is not formal. However, some companies choose, as routine procedure, to have their employees include titles on memos.

• Date. Dates are important for filing and tracking chronology.

• Subject Line. This concisely summarizes the contents of the memo.

These components can be arranged in different formats in different organizations.

After reading the subject line, someone should know immediately what the memo is about. A good subject line contains key words about the memo, because people often use key words as a basis for filing and retrieving the memos. Type the subject line with the first word capitalized and the first letter of all other words capitalized, except for prepositions of less than five letters (such as for, to, and at) and articles (a, an, and the). You can also type the subject line in all capital letters for emphasis. You can start the subject line at the left margin, indent it or centre it. Some organizations, particularly law firms, use RE (which means «in reference to») instead of SUBJECT.

Subject lines need not be complete sentences. Using phrases or clauses instead of complete sentences lets you emphasize the message without extra wording. State your subject line in about five to eight words to give the reader an idea of what the document is about. Inserting some type of action verb can be a good idea. The following examples of boring subject lines give no real indication of what the document is about:

SUBJECT: OVERTIME

SUBJECT: EVALUATION

SUBJECT: SEEING FINALISTS

SUBJECT: PROCEDURAL INFORMATION

SOPPADA: A Memo Formula

The most successful newsletter stressing communication topics for people in business is Communication Briefings, published by two business professors from Glassboro State College in New Jersey. They suggest using the acronym SOPPADA as a guide to writing clear, concise memos. Here's how SOPPADA works in a specific situation concerning hiring a new person:

S=Subject.

• New person to do desktop publishing.

0=Objectives.

• Save time and money by not using outside resources.

• Make better use of desktop publishing technology purchased but not fully utilized.

• Produce more attractive documents for internal and external consumption.

P=Present Situation

• Now using outside suppliers, whose hourly rates are high and turnaround slower than needed.

• Increasing need for desktop-published documents as the company increases its new product output that require user manuals.

P=Proposal

• Hire Jack Rochester, who has been interviewed and has the skills we need. A=Advantages

• Save money over use of outside suppliers.

• Quicker turnaround and more control over the format of company manuals and other documents.

D=Disadvantages

• New employee means taking on additional overhead cost.

• Must keep the pipeline full of work for this person (but there is enough work to justify the hire).

A=Action needed

• Final approval to hire Rochester.

As with any formula you cannot apply it to every situation. Nevertheless, SOPPADA can be useful way to remember what managers need to know in order to act on your memos.

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A fax machine is a relatively inexpensive essential item of equipment for any business. Fax messages may be sent between branches of the same company or to external business associates. Today many communications which would normally be sent by letter are now in fact sent by fax. When referring to the model letters, the text of the messages may equally be used in fax communications. Most of the companies use their own standard forms (templates) prepared in fully blocked style for writing fax messages which are usually available in the computer net. The operator has to insert the necessary information and send the message. While receiving it, be sure to check back the number of pages including the first one.

ELECTRONIC MAIL

Most office activities are now being undertaken by electronic and computer-based technology. As a result electronic mail (or email as it is commonly known) is becoming an extremely effective, low-cost and very fast way of communicating with friends and colleagues all over the world. Email messages may be sent to one individual or simultaneously to several recipients. Email is quick and easy to use and a lot of time and effort is saved in producing formal printed memos. Of course, a printed copy of email messages can be printed out if required. Composing an email message should not be an opportunity to forget all the basic rules of good writing. However, the evolution of email has brought about its own "netiquette" as discussed here:

1. Check the email address. Correctly addressed email is delivered within seconds. It can take days to receive an error message letting you know that an incorrectly addressed message did not get delivered.

2. Always write a subject heading. This will give the recipient a good idea of the contents of the message and makes for easier handling.

3. Check the time. It is important to keep your computer's internal clock and date settings accurate; otherwise problems may be caused in trying to sort messages chronologically.

4. Keep caps lock off. Capitals indicate shouting and can look threatening.

5. Express yourself. Emoticons can be used to show mood in your email messages. Some of the more common emoticons are:

: -) happy: -I indifference

; -) wink: -/ perplexed

:-(sad:-D shock or surprise

6. Greetings. Formality does not read well in email. Replace formal salutations like "Dear David" with informal "Hello David'' or even just "David''. "Yours sincerely" is not needed in emails, perhaps just "Best wishes" or "All the best".

7. Check your syntax. It is easy to allow sentences to become very long and verbose. Make an effort to keep sentences short and simple, and check your syntax. The more pride you take in your message composition, the more successful you will be in being understood and achieving the desired results.

8. Keep copies. Just as you would keep copies of letters, it is good practice to take a printout of email messages sent and received.

9. Check your message. As soon as you hit the "send" symbol, your message maybe received in seconds. No calling it back for second thoughts. So check it and get it right first time.

Overcoming Some Challenges When Using E-Mail

You can become a more effective e-mail user by following some basic guidelines:

1. Become receiver oriented. Before sending an e-mail message, know your receiver(s). Think about who should receive your message, what the receiver already knows and needs to know, and how the receiver is likely to interpret the message. Overcome the tendency to be sender oriented, and do hot believe that what you have to say is more important than who will read your message.

2. Develop some guidelines for using e-mail. Establish guidelines for generating and using distribution lists. The problem of inappropriate distribution lists is accented with e-mail because just about any list can be created with a single keystroke. Ask yourself these questions before creating a distribution list:

• Which people should be involved in various communication processes, and who will be upset if they are not?

• Who requires special handling when people send sensitive messages on the e-mail system? Which people would benefit more from receiving messages face to face or by other communication methods?

• To what extent am I wasting the time of other people by sending irrelevant messages?

• Am I sending e-mail messages to accomplish organizational goals or to promote myself?

3. Avoid miscommunication. Make sure that what you read on your e-mail screen is what you really mean and want to send. When people compose messages on the e-mail system, they tend to become less inhibited and formal. In addition to becoming less formal, some people also forget to realize that they lose the use of voice, eyes, gestures, posture, and facial expression to supplement e-mail messages. Therefore miscommunication is more likely to occur. To overcome possible misunderstandings, you can analyse your receivers and decide case by case which approach will work best with each - formal or informal.

• Anticipate the responses that your readers might have to your messages.

• Add personal or interpretive comments with your messages to help compensate for the lack of nonverbal communication.

Here is an example of an E-mail:

Subject: Model Business Letters Date: Mon, 22 Sept 1997 15:17:59+0000 From: [email protected] To: [email protected]     Hi Pradeep,     Thanks for your email today. I’m glad you had a good holiday.   I’ve been able to progress well with revisions to Model Business Letters. Help from my friends Nan Harper and Barrie Mort has been so valuable.   You’ll be glad to know that I’ll be able to meet the deadline and should be able to finalize things within the next week or so J. Can we arrange to meet early October so that I can finish my manuscript and discuss the amendments and new page design etc.?   Talk to you soon.   All the best,   Shirley  

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Дата добавления: 2014-12-26