BW-301f · Module 2

When Email Fails and a Memo Is Required

4 min read

Email is the dominant communication medium of professional life, and it is often the wrong tool. Email is conversational, ephemeral in practice if not in archive, and unsuited to communicating decisions that need to be treated as formal records. A decision communicated by email is, in organizational culture, a conversation. The same decision communicated by memo is a formal organizational act. The choice between the two signals how the writer intends the communication to be treated.

Do This

  • Use a memo when the communication establishes a decision, policy, or position that needs to be treated as a formal organizational record
  • Use a memo when the audience is a defined group that needs the communication simultaneously and formally
  • Use a memo when the content is substantive enough to warrant being retrieved, cited, and referenced independently of an email thread
  • Use a memo when the communication requires a written signature or explicit acknowledgment rather than a reply

Avoid This

  • Use a memo for conversational exchanges or quick operational coordination — email is more appropriate
  • Use a memo when the same message in a well-written email would accomplish the same result — format should serve function
  • Use a memo to signal formality when the relationship and context call for informality — the format choice communicates itself
  • Confuse length with formality — a one-paragraph memo is more formal than a three-page email; length is not the variable