Week 2 - Emails and Memos: The bulk of your professional communication

Welcome to Week 2 - Emails and Memos

This week we were going to work on writing issues in the workplace and proper writing style. Go to our Google Drive and take a look at the PDF book chapter I have copied for you. You do not need to read the entire chapter (We must learn to skim.) Read the pages devoted to proper email style and proper memo style.

Follow the basic templates for each of these documents. Don't make more work for yourself than need be; follow the templates so that you may spend more time concerned with your words. These are not long documents so you have "space" to make them flawless.

The details: The email

We will function like a small business in this class. The name of our company is Crowley Widgets International. When you correspond with me I am always the CEO of your company. Whenever you send me a document write it as such unless I indicate otherwise. 

By noon on Monday, June 6  send an email  to my SU email account. 

The email will be about the company that wants to win our advertising business.  The first email is to give me a preview  of the meetings you are attending with both agencies. Spend most of your time for writing the email on the book chapter I have in the Week 2 Drive. You will use the information from the video posted in Google Drive for Week 2. 

The details: The memo.

The memo will contain details about your chosen agency after their presentations. This will be your suggestion as to which agency you think is best for our company and why.  Send the memo in an email (that is also a part of the grade because you have learned to send one well) to my SU account on Tuesday, June 7 by noon. Several things to consider when writing a memo:

TO:

FROM:

DATE:

RE: (In reference to . . . )

The introduction

Remind me (because I am very busy) of the discussion we had about looking for a new agency to partner with. Always begin a memo giving the content structure and context. Tell me what we are going to be talking about and what conclusion you came to; don’t make it a secret until the end.

Start with the main idea

Begin by outlining which agency you chose and a little background about them. (You may have to do some outside research other than watching the program.)

State the major points

Remember what it is that your agency does (We make widgets for and come up with a list of 3-5 points where you think this agency could help our marketing team.

Illustrate with evidence

Once you make those points, based on what you watched and researched, give evidence as to why you think this agency should work with us.

Almost as important as the actual content how you structure your content visually.

Use headers and bold them.

Headers help the reader can scan the document more easily.

Also use bullets:

Don't have too many items. Three is good, four OK, five manageable (if you're lucky), more than five you should think again!

• Avoid making bullets as long as paragraphs.Three lines is a reasonable maximum length.
• Be sure bullet points are related, especially if you have more than five.
• If you have many points break them up for clarity.
• Avoid bullet points when you want to build rapport or deal with sensitive issues. Bullets communicate efficiency rather than warmth.

When you conclude your memo always end it with some sort of action point.

“Would you like me to set up a meeting with the BLAH agency?” or “Would you like me to acquire an RFP?”

Also give the person you are sending the memo to a time frame in which to reply.

“Please let me know by Wednesday, March 23 so that new business group can create an agenda for the next quarter.”

Best,

You

Let's look at a couple of examples:

• From University of Oklahoma 
• From University of Colorado (this is a long PDF file that discusses more detail about memos)
• This example most closely represents what you will be doing for your assignment. 
• Here is a video about writing memos that may help clarify

This document should not be more than one and one half pages but a single page would be ideal.  If you have any questions you can email me. 

Be prudent, be creative and most of all be confident in your ideas.

I look forward to reading the memos and your suggestions for our company.

Thinking about communicating and the assignments Week 1

Hello, communicators.
I'm excited to be working online with you. I think this is appropriate space because we all work so much online. This is an important question in this short semester:

How do communicate with technology?

Popping off a quick email, posting a comment to an online chat or even writing something more complicated can often be misinterpreted through electronic communications. I am sure you can all think of incidences where you thought an email meant one thing but you didn't understand the tone of the message.

Electronic communication can also be difficult because your don't want to write too much (no one will read it all) and you don't want to write too little because you don't want to leave out details that are important.

So how do we reconcile

• What we want to say
• How we want to say it
• Who we want to send it to and
• By what kind of communication do you want to send it?

Read the article posted in our Google Drive and watch this talk given by the author Nicholas Carr.

I want you to be thoughtful about how you try to work with the computer - our third most important tool - next to our brains and our voices.

This week you will have two assignments.

ASSIGNMENT 1

By Friday this week - you will post on the Facebook page the following information:

Introduce yourself to the class and write about your writing issues on our Facebook page. What are your biggest writing and communication challenges? What do you like about writing and what so you hate about it? Again this will be a challenge because we don't write "papers" on Facebook.

Take some time and think about how you use these technologies and if you think they make you a better communicator.

Think about every word you choose and have a reason for it.

For example, the above sentence started out as "You should understand why you choose the words you choose." As I read it I realized several things:

Verb generally make the sentence stronger; I didn't do that.
I used too many words when only a few were important.
I didn't explain myself well.

Which sentence do you think is better? AND WHY?
I have my reasons; what are yours?

ASSIGENMENT 2

For next Monday write a short brief 400-500 words on the email you read, Facebook posts, blogs, chats, articles from the industry blog or news sites you read. This is about how you interact with professional information. Use the reading from Week 1 from Nicolas Carr and the video to help you be reflective about your communication techniques.

SIDE NOTE - THIS IS ABOUT YOUR PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION. If you are not reading, blogging, tweeting, sharing information about your industry of interest. GET ON IT!
Start reading or looking at the following:
WSJ

Marketplace

The Economist The smartest people in the world read this - be one of them.

In other words,
start to look at what you read
how it is written
how you react to it

Dig deep here. Don't just say, "I read the WSJ about manufacturing and all of the articles are well written. I understand and believe everything I read."

Think about the words. Think about a time when you experienced a miscommunication on an email or text. What was the problem and how did the problem resolve itself? Have you changed what you say in an email or text because of an incident?

Take some time and think about how you use these technologies and if you think they make you a better communicator.