MEMO WRITING PROMPTS

Grading

Your memo will be graded for both form and content. Be sure you respond to the rhetorical situation in
an appropriate manner. Be aware of your audience and your tone. In terms of formatting, check your
fonts, margins, and all other design aspects of the memo. In terms of content, be certain that you have
addressed all the questions provided and corresponded in a tone of friendly professionalism.

Below are the prompts you may choose from. If you don’t find any of these prompts useful or
appealing, you may write one yourself. However, you must email it to me for approval before
you start writing your memo.
1. You are the Chief Pharmacist at the University of Arizona’s campus health center. The normal
working hours are M-F from 8 am – 5 pm. However, less students come to the pharmacy over
the summer, so the Campus Health Director has decided to change the summer hours to 8 am –
3:30 pm. This change will be in effect from May 23rd-August 22nd. It’s currently April 21. The
Director has asked you, as Chief Pharmacist, to write a memo to the part-time pharmacists and
pharmacy technicians informing them of this change. In addition, you need to keep in mind that
these employees are paid by the hour. Write a memo that explains the reasoning behind this
change in hours and also assuages the concerns of the employees. Remember that memos are
public documents and you therefore cannot just blame the Director!
2. You are the office manager at an architectural consulting firm. Your company is working on a
very important, time-consuming and time-sensitive proposal. Memorial Day is coming up, and
employees are supposed to receive holiday pay. Yet, with the impending deadline, you need
approximately 20 (out of 300) employees to volunteer to work on Memorial Day. Volunteers
will receive an incentive (choose an incentive you deem appropriate to the situation, such as
overtime pay); however, if enough volunteers are not found, you will have to require others to
work on Memorial Day, starting with those who have been hired most recently. Write a memo
providing all relevant information and persuading volunteers to work on Memorial Day.
3. You work at an engineering firm with approximately 150 employees, and your company has
just changed its email system from Outlook to Gmail. Many employees are having trouble using
this new system (filters, folders, etc.), so your boss has decided to organize training sessions.
Since you understand the new system well, he has asked you to write a memo to persuade your
colleagues to attend the training. It’s now September 23rd, and the training will occur in three
2-hour sessions on October 2nd (8 am-10 am, 10:15 am-12:15 pm, and 2:00-4:00). The
conference rooms can accommodate 25 employees at a time. Employees must email you with
their chosen time, and they should keep in mind that these slots are first-come, first-served.
Write a memo that persuades your coworkers to attend these sessions, and be sure to include
all relevant information for scheduling the sessions. Oh—and your boss just dropped by to
mention that he cannot offer pay for any part-time or by-the-hour employees. They must clock
out for the training.
4. You are the most experienced animal technician in the veterinary office you work for. The
veterinarian who you work for just read some recent research about the medication,
Amoxicillin, which is an antibiotic for dogs. While he has previously prescribed up to 200 mg for
dogs with ear infections, he has learned that prescribing over 100 mg per day can harm the
dog’s liver. Therefore, he has asked you to write a memo to the other veterinarians in the office
to warn them of this concern. (Remember, you are a tech writing to the vets; consider your
tone!). Also, since your vet is the head of the practice, he wants you to implement some sort of
penalty for those who do not follow his instructions. Determine a sanction appropriate to the
situation.
5. You run a dance studio, in which you have employed one receptionist, four dance instructors,
and an accountant. Massive street construction has been implemented on the main street
where your studio is. This construction will last from October 3rd through December 4th (Today
is October 1st). You are very concerned that you might lose customers due to lack of parking
spots or general frustration with the construction, and you’re also worried that new customers
might not know your studio is open. Write a memo to the parents of your dance students that
explains the construction situation, indicating that your studio is still open during construction
and alleviating any concerns they might have about parking or general access to the studio. In
addition, consider asking the parents to promote your studio to friends (or come up with some
useful alternatives), since you’re worried about losing new business.
From: https://engl307.files.wordpress.com/2012/08/memo-in-context-assignment1.pdf

Direction: Write a memo up to three paragraphs long for one of the following scenarios. Decide who the
memo should be sent to and what the subject of the message is. Add your own information to the body
of the memo.

6. You are the office manager and want to remind everyone to clean up after themselves in the
lunchroom. There was recently an infestation of cockroaches. The building has since been fumigated but
you still require the cooperation of staff to prevent a re-infestation. State the purpose of the memo,
your reason(s) for sending it (i.e. the kind of behavior you have noticed) and what actions you want
taken.

7. You are an administrative assistant. You want to tell 10 people about an upcoming computer training
seminar. You are attaching a brochure about the seminar from the presenter, but you also need to
inform them of the following:

 what the training is for

MEMO-WRITING CHECKLIST

 The memo is written in the proper format (e.g., To, From, Date, Subject, etc.)
 The subject line clearly states the purpose of the memo
 The first sentence of the memo states the purpose
 The message of the memo is clear
 Attachments included with the memo are referred to in the body of the memo
 There is no grammar, spelling or punctuation errors

https://www.settlementatwork.org/lincdocs/linc5-7/business.writing/pdfs/
bus.writing.LINC7/09.writing.memos.pdf