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Writing a Professional Memorandum

IE 305 XW Summer 2020

The following guidelines will help you write a professional memorandum (memo) for each project in the IE 305 XW course.

Header

The memo should begin with a header, which should contain the following:

To: Who is the audience of your memo? (e.g., for project 1, your audience is Delivery By Water)

From: Name of each individual in your group. (Remember, you can have 1 or 2 total people.)

Date: Date submitted

Subject: Provide a short subject for the memo (similar to the subject line in an email)

Executive Summary

The first paragraph should be an executive summary with a section header labeled Executive Summary. The executive summary briefly explains the topic of the memo (in 1-2 sentences), summarizes the options that the memo analyzes, and provides your recommendation. The executive summary should provide a summary of your analysis so that a reader can understand the fundamental points of your analysis and recommendation before reading the entire memo.

Analysis

The paragraphs after the executive summary should provide your analysis. Writing about technical analysis is challenging because you want to provide enough information so that the reader can understand your analysis but not too much information that the reader is bogged down with the information. You generally should not write mathematical equations in your memo.

Format

You should write in complete sentences. Do not use contractions. For example, write “do not” instead of “don’t,” and write “it is” instead of “it’s.” You should use an appropriate font, such as Times New Roman size 11 or 12, Calibri size 11, or Arial size 11. You should remain consistent within the memo with your font and font size. In other words, do not begin the memo in Times New Roman size 12 and switch to size 11 in the middle of the memo. The memo should be single-spaced or have a multiple line spacing between 1.05 and 1.10. (This document has a multiple line spacing of 1.08.) Do not choose double spacing or 1.5 line spacing for the memo.

Including section headers is a good idea, approximately one section header for every 3-4 paragraphs. (The executive summary is its own section and should be a single paragraph.) The section header should be flush left and in bold with the same font as the rest of the text.

You can choose whether or not to indent your paragraphs. Having some space between each paragraph enhances readability. This document has 8 point spacing after each paragraph.

If the memo is longer than a page, the document should have page numbers in the same font as the rest of the document. Generally, the page numbers should be at the bottom of the page and centered.

You should write money as $3,520,000 or $3.52 million. You should write $3,534,123 rather than $3.534123 million (or you could round the number to $3.53 million). Always write $220,000, not $220 thousand. Since most of the money discussed in these projects will be hundreds of dollars or more, you do not need to depict the cents, unless it is really important for your analysis. You should have the dollar sign $ in front of the number rather than writing out the word dollars. In other words, do not write 3.5 million dollars.

Bullet Points and Numbered Lists

You can (but are not required to) have bullet points such as

· $20,000 in year 1

· $45,000 in year 3

· $50,000 in year 6

or numbered lists, such as

1. Agree to 15-year mortgage, invest in IRA

2. Agree to 15-year mortgage, pay off mortgage as quickly as possible

3. Agree to 15-year mortgage, pay off vehicle loan as quickly as possible

The bullet points or numbered lists can be complete sentences or phrases. The bullet points or numbered lists should generally not contain several (i.e., 3 or more) sentences. If you need to write several sentences, it is better to use paragraphs.

Tables and Figures

If you use a table, you should not copy and paste the table from Microsoft Excel or another spreadsheet program, but the table should be created in Microsoft Word. The table should be centered in the document and should contain a caption above the table. Tables usually look more professional with just a few horizontal borders, as illustrated in Table 1. You should reference the table in the text of the memo, such as Table 1.

Table 1: Rates of return for two projects

If you use a graph in the memo, you should usually build the graph in Microsoft Excel. Copy the graph from Excel and paste the graph in Word as a jpg document. Go to paste special in Microsoft Word and select Picture (JPG).

The chart should have each axis labeled and a legend that explains each line in the chart. The font size on the chart can be a little smaller than the font size for the rest of the memo, but the font should not be too small. The chart should have a caption beneath the chart. The caption beneath the chart replaces the need for a chart title. You should reference the chart in the text of the memo, such as Figure 1.

Figure 1: Profit as a function of the probability of having high demand

Conclusion

The last paragraph or two of the memo should provide your recommendation. It should explain why you are recommending this course of action. It is very useful to provide intuition behind why you are recommending this course of action.

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