Writing a Good Memo – Quick Tips (1.0 – December 2008)

Organizing the Text (The CPQQRT Method)

• Context - Why should this be done?

• Purpose - What difference will this make?

• Quantity - How much output is wanted?

• Quality - What kind of output is wanted?

• Resources - What can the recipient do about it?

• Time - When does it need to be completed by?

Writing the Text

• Give each topic a new paragraph and cover only one topic in each paragraph

• Start each paragraph with a topic sentence

• End each paragraph with a sentence referring back to the topic sentence

• Keep the subject, noun and verb together, putting qualifications and explanations after them

• Place the sentence's emphatic words at the end

• Use only one tense – past, present or future

Simplify the Text

• Never use a figure of speech regularly used in print

• Never use a long word where a short one will do

• If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out

  • Avoid using double or triple words when the words mean one idea

  • Use the active voice in place of the passive voice

• Never use a jargon word or foreign phase where an everyday English equivalent exists

• Keep lines under 65 characters and justify margins for easy reading

Format the Text

• Use examples to illustrate particularly complex ideas

• Used vertical lists where a sentence contains multiple exceptions or conditions

• Use tables to show the relationship between complex materials (example: an if-then table)

• Used emphasis (bold and italics) to highlight important concepts

• Use descriptive headers between sections to separate ideas

By l33tpolicywonk. Assisted by an Ask Metafilter post here, and based on W Strunk's “Elements of Style”, G Orwell's “Politics and the English Language”, I Macdonald et al's “Systems Leadership” and the US Federal Government's Plain Language Guidelines. Licensed Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 (Distribute all you like, so long as you cite “l33tpolicywonk”.)