Lesson 2: Memo Report

1.            What is a memo report?

Put simply, a memo report is a brief report which is presented with a memo header:

To:

From:

Date:

Subject:

It is presented in the form of a memo because it is for internal communication purposes. In the context of your project, the consultant sees him/herself as temporarily affiliated to the company and, therefore, uses the memo format to stress his/her temporary insider status.

2.            But what is the difference between a memo and a memo report?

A memo can be used for any kind of internal correspondence within an organisation. It may be very short and relatively informal. Over the past 10-15 years, however, this use of the memo has largely disappeared from organisations because of the use of e-mail. These days, memos are largely reserved for the communication of information that is deemed too important to just put in an e-mail (although, of course, it might still be distributed as an e-mail attachment).

A memo report has a formal status. It is a means of briefly summarising complex information, using an explicit structure. You make the structure clear to the reader by using sub-headings, which should be in bold and can be numbered as in this document. Numbering helps when the document is discussed because the speaker can easily refer to e.g. section 3, second paragraph.

3.            What structure should I use?

Memo reports are often summarised reports of highly focussed investigations, and they then have the following structure:

Introduction (Background and problem definition)

Methodology (Explanations of the methods used during field research)

Findings (What did you discover during your investigation?

Discussion (What do your finding mean? Why are they important to the reader?)

Conclusions

Recommendations

In the context of your project, your discussions are rather broad, and you are not carrying out field research, so the methodology section is not needed. You can also use a structure in which you divide your memo into major themes and deal with findings and discussion per theme, as follows:

Introduction: background, explanation of problem and explanation of main themes

Theme 1 findings and discussion

Theme 2 findings and discussion

Theme 3 findings and discussion

Conclusions and Recommendations (these can be combined)

             

Note: if you use more than 3 or 4 themes, your report begins to feel like a list and it is difficult for the reader (and writer!) to make connections between the themes. Try to develop 3 or 4 umbrella themes under which all the issues discussed can be placed.

4.            How do I introduce a new theme?

Use a header, as described above, but remember that the header is only like a headline in a newspaper. It gives your reader a quick indication that the topic is changing, but it does not explain this. Therefore, each new section should begin with a full sentence, which introduces the new topic. For instance:

Concerning promotion, we have decided to concentrate on internet advertising.

Regarding promotion, we have decided to concentrate on internet advertising.

In terms of promotion, we have decided to concentrate on internet advertising.

Or:

Our second main challenge/problem is promotion. We have decided to concentrate on internet advertising because…

5.            How long should it be?

This varies, but the idea is that you summarise ideas briefly. We have asked you for about 500 words, which represents 2-3 pages in a text laid out with headers.