Memos, messages, forms and questionnaires

Abstract

Letter-writing and report-writing tend to get a great deal of attention in most books on business communication — the one because it’s such a common activity both in and outside the workplace, and the other because it is regarded as a fairly onerous job by most people. However, the barrage of instructions above is fairly typical of the many writing tasks which you might very easily be called upon to tackle. Do you know how a memo differs from a letter? Have you ever sent an email? Could you devise an effective questionnaire which creates goodwill rather than ill-will?