Week 2 Emails and Memos

Your electronic voice - emails and memos

This week we will be reading chapter one in the book provided to you on Google Drive.

We will be writing and rewriting business emails and memos. 

Your assignments this week:

1. A company email. 
    I will provide you the information for this email. You will compose it and send it to my address at kcrowley@su.edu.       
Please send this email by Friday, July 13 by 9 p.m. EST

2. A recommendation memo. 
    I will provide you with information for a project management memo. 

    You will compose it and send it to me by Sunday, June 15 at the usual time. 

I will provide you basic templates for each of these documents. Don't make more work for yourself; 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.

Things to consider when you start to write an email

• What is your audience’s relationship to you—for example, is the reader your teacher? Your boss? A friend? A stranger? How well do you know him/her? How would you talk to him/her in a social situation?

• What do you want your audience to think or assume about you? What kind of impression do you want to make? 

1. There is a specific subject line


2. There is a greeting to the person receiving the email - not a "hey"

3. Get directly to the point. Use no exclamation points, emoticons or slang.
4. Use proper grammar, spelling and style. Email is not an exception, especially since it might be the first or only was someone gets an impression of you.
5 Use a closing.

For your closing, something brief but friendly, or perhaps just your name, will do for most correspondence.

For a very formal message, such as a job application, use the kind of closing that you might see in a business letter.

Thank you,

Best wishes,

See you tomorrow,

Regards,

Sincerely,

Respectfully yours,

Get most of you information about how to write good emails from the video and from the chapter provided in the Google Drive. Start on page 7 to learn more about writing strong and effective emails. Also to consider: 

Here is a brief example of some emails I have received in the past:

E-mail from Student 1:

i need help on my paper can i come by your office tomorrow
thx

E-mail from Student 2:

           Hi Dr. Crowley,

I am in your MCOM 101 class on Thursdays, and I have a question about the paper that is due next Tuesday. I’m not sure that I understand what is meant by the following sentence in the prompt:
“Write a 10-page paper arguing for or against requiring ENG 101 for all SU freshmen and provide adequate support for your point of view.”
I am not sure what you would consider “adequate” support. Would using 3 sources be o.k.?
Can I come by your office tomorrow at 2:00 pm to talk to you about my question? Please let me know if that fits your schedule. If not, I could also come by on Friday after 1:00.
Thank you,
Tim Smith

See the difference? 

If you have any questions you can email me. 
From this day forward I only reply to professional emails.

THE MEMO

• From University of Oklahoma 

• From the 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. 

THE ASSIGNMENT 

The details:

I am always the CEO of your company. 
Whenever you send me a document write it as such unless I indicate otherwise. 

Assignment 1 - The email. 

The email will be about the company that wants to win our advertising business. You will use the information from the video called The Pitch (It is in our Google Drive). The email is a preview as you are going to the meeting to "interview" both agencies. 

Assignment 2 - The memo.

The memo will contain details about your chosen agency after the presentation. This will be your suggestion as to which agency you think is best for our company.  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 concerning 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 and come up with a list of 3-5 points where you think this agency could help our 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 - think again!

•Avoid making bullets as long as paragraphs.

Three lines is a reasonable maximum length.

• Be sure bullet points are related. You don't want to confuse this issue by talking about scheduling in budget points. 

•   Avoid bullet points when you want to build rapport or deal with sensitive issues. Bullets communicate efficiency rather than warmth. You are failing this class, for example. 

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

This document should not be more than one and one-half pages but a single page would be ideal.  Be prudent, be creative but most of all be confident in your ideas and how you present them.

I look forward to reading the memos and the email.