Assignment Prompt and Context

you will pretend you are amanagerat a company of your choosing. You will writea memo to the employees announcing a new policy. Topics you can writeabout include:

• A new policy related to vacation time or work hour

You will want to be clear, so that no one is confused about the policy. You'll also want to explain your reasoning to your audience in order to get them onboard with a change that might inconvenience them. Finally, you will want to maintain a professional tone and style throughout.

The most common mistakes that students make are 1) submitting a memo that is way, way too short, and does not include all relevant information (for example, it might announce a new rule without explaining why, or not offer enough detail for the employee to be able to follow the policy); 2) submitting a memo with a policy that is confusing and hard to understand (remember that the employee should be able to understand exactly what the new policy is and how to follow it); 3) submitting a memo that is formatted incorrectly or poorly; 4) submitting a memo with inappropriate tone (for example, unnecessarily bossy or unprofessionally informal in addressing team members).Try to avoid making these mistakes.

Suggestions for Success

Your memo should follow the conventions of professional memos:

• a clear statement of purpose early
• a brief summary
• informative headings
• a prominent recommendation and/or action items

Additional memo formatting and style guidelines:

• address the memo to specific audience
• createa specific subject line
• use block format
• writeclear topic sentences at the start of each paragraph
• writein complete sentences with proper grammar, punctuation, and mechanics (capitalization, spelling, etc.); avoid slang

As with other professional documents, the best memos utilize standard format and style conventions strategically to optimize professional communication in the workplace. In other words, writeand organize your memo carefully so that the document communicates information clearly and in a logical, organic structure. Format and organization are also important tools you can use to guide readers' attention to the essential information they need to understand about the new office policy. Since professional memos are often addressed to and read by work colleagues, including busy supervisors and staff members who may not have the time to read every word, memos should allow the reader to scan the document quickly, locate important information detailing new procedures or required action items, understand the rationale behind the decision to impose a new policy to solve the particular problem, and know what they need to do (and how to do it) in order to carry out the policy successfully. Lastly, the memo should be professional both in tone and mechanics (no typos, slang words, etc.)

Minimum 350words