Praxis: A Writing Center Journal (20032011) Sections Focus Columns and Reviews Consulting Training News & Announcements
Home » Archives » Fall 2009 (Volume 7 Issue 1) - Professionalization and the Writing Center, Part I
The Merciless Grammarian Fall 2009 / Columns
The Merciless Grammarian spews his wrath on nasty problems of grammar, mechanics, and style.
Archives Browse past issues of Praxis
About Us About Us
Submissions Submit an article to Praxis
Drawing by Nathan Baran Dear M to the G, So I’ve been asked to write a memo to explain some new hiring procedures at my work. Is that 8451c4LLy like an e-mail? Your BFF, Kye Whitehead My loathsome Master Whitehead: Somewhere amid the alphabet soup of your text-message-addled missive, I gathered that you are somehow confusing two very different genres of writing, each with its own purpose and tone. Let me disabuse you of this conflation. A memorandum–from the Latin for “that thing we should remember”–is a professional document that both communicates and makes things happen. “Memos,” as they are called amid the gray cubicles of today’s professional world, may be used to transmit information, invite feedback, assign responsibilities, or communicate policies. As the original Latin suggests, these documents create an official record of whatever they report. Therefore, besides the dictates of form (lines indicating who the memo is addressed to and who it is from, the date it was written and the subject), memos require special attention to audience and purpose. Many other lucky or unlucky souls may read your memo besides the person you address, and whatever you write may be consulted later or referred to in support of important decisions. An electronic mail message–letting “e-anything” pass my lips saps the ichor
from my veins–indeed shares with its luddite grandsire the “To:”, “From:”, date and subject lines, the latter labeled with the laudably Latinate “Re:” for “about which thing” (what is it with all these Latin things?). There the resemblance ends. Memos endure. E-mails (e-gad!) are ephemeral. Memos are formal. Emails may be so but more often than not take a middle ground between writing and spoken chatter. What the two share, however, is the possibility of being passed on to readers other than those directly addressed, much to the edification or horror of the writer. In the electronically fueled world of today’s professional communication, writers may very well send a memo by e-mail, attaching the document with a brief note in the message itself directing the reader’s attention to it. Those seeking to help others (not I) have included useful information on writing memos at the Purdue Online Writing Lab. From my mountain crag, I sincerely hope that understanding the difference between these two forms of writing will contribute to–nay, bring into very being–your professionalism. In the meantime, I remain, The Merciless One ‹ The Future of WPA Professionalization: A 2007 Survey
up
Praxis is a project of the Undergraduate Writing Center at the University of Texas at Austin Editor login
The Most Vital Kairotic Moment ›