Intro

TO: Steve Smith

FROM: Joseph Lin

DATE: February 6, 2012

SUBJECT: How to write an effective memorandum

Introduction

As you know, I am your new coworker, Joseph, and really look forward to working with you. During our daily job, effective communication skills are very necessary for you as an auditor. Thus, this memo mainly shares some concepts, skills and tips with you based on Kolin’s Successful Writing at Work that will help you as a new employee in accounting firms.

Summary of Kolin’s Successful Writing at Work

Writing is an important daily business task which will reflect your communication skills and show your clients the image of our company. Therefore, writing is important in both internal and external correspondence. During daily work, memos, faxes, emails, IMs and blogs are frequent forms of writing (Kolin, 2011). However, memos are very different, so I will focus on memos. According to Kolin’s Successful Writing at Work, “memos are brief and informal but can contain official announcements that serve a variety of functions (Kolin, 2011).” How to write an effective memo should consider the following aspects:

• Memo protocol

• Format

• Style and tone

• Strategies for organizing

• Sending methods

How to write an effective memo

First, you should prepare a memo template. With a memo template, you don’t need to write the identifying information each time, which will save time. Also, you should mention the people in “From” in the order of their status. Therefore, you can’t put VP in front of CEO. Moreover, you should have a clear topic in “Subject”. For example, you write a memo to board of directors about the problem when you file the auditing folder. Instead of writing vaguely “the problem from the auditing file”, you should write the specific problem such as the sampling problem from the auditing file.

Style and tone are the second important things because you don’t want to show self-importance...