Instructional Memo

Your next assignment is to write individually or in collaborative groups a memo that presents instructions to an audience in an organization of some kind (e.g., company, club, volunteer group, church). Instructions or procedures are one of the most common forms of professional communication. Your memo should be about two pages long.

Selecting a suitable subject is of the utmost importance for success with this assignment. Here are some points for your consideration:

• Memos must be written by an insider in an organization to an audience also within the organization.  The topic must be an organizational procedure.  Don't select some general topic such as changing the oil in a car or setting up an aquarium: those kinds of topics are inappropriate for this assignment.
  
  
• Instructions are read by people who don't know how to do something but who need to know; therefore, think of procedures about which you are a relative expert but with which others are inexperienced. Also, select a procedure that people are motivated to learn about, that they need to know. For example, think about new employees at a place where you work or where you have worked: what sorts of things must they learn how to do? What procedures might new employees learn more quickly if they had a written set of instructions?
  
  
• You may want to do a little role playing in this assignment. Instructional memos are usually written by someone in a supervisory position.  If you are not in a supervisory position and haven't been in one, but if you are still a relative expert on a subject, give yourself the appropriate position for this memo. You may also write a memo appropriate for an organization that you used to belong to: just write the memo as if you’re providing the instructions now.
  
  
• To be truly instructive, instructions need to be complete; when an audience finishes them, the audience should be able to do the procedure described. Do not, therefore, select a topic so large you can write about it only in general terms with no hope of people actually being able to do it when they are done with your instructions.
  
  
• Considering the first two points, think very carefully of topics and audiences you know well: think of a job or unpaid position you had where you now realize that a set of instructions would really have helped.  If you were thrown into a job that you had to learn by trial and error, create a set of instructions that express what you learned and that would save others from experiencing the kinds of frustrations you did.  You might want to think of what instructions would help the person who takes over the position you currently hold. Don’t forget to consider instructions that are needed by club members or volunteers.
  
  
• For some reason students are sometimes tempted to plagiarize for this assignment, taking instructions for a process off the Web. There is absolutely no need to engage in any kind of plagiarism for this assignment: if you choose a process you know well, you should be able to write a thorough, realistic set of directions relying solely on your own mind.

The following is a description of the instructional memo in terms of SCAMP. Read the appropriate chapter in Kolin for his advice on instructions, but keep in mind that only a few of the models in Kolin would be appropriate for this assignment. Assembling an outdoor grill, connecting a monitor to a computer, and installing ink cartridges, for example, are not appropriate models for this specific assignment because they aren’t instructions written from within an organization. For our purposes, the best model in Kolin is the memo that explains policies and procedures for flextime (near the end of the chapter).

• Style: Most importantly, instructions are marked by commands, that is, sentences that begin with verbs. Commands save words and directly engage the audience that is interested in the process. So instead of writing, "The operator should raise the lid," write, "Raise the lid." Don’t write “The employee must now remember to set the alarm.” Do write “Set the alarm.”

Instructions often feature lists, which should be presented in parallel grammatical structure.  If, for example, you need to sum up the duties of a sales associate, this is not a parallel list: "assist customers with finding and selecting products, straightening and cleaning sales floor, operation of register."  Three different grammatical structures appear in that list: plain verb plus object, -ing verb, and noun phrase.  Keep lists parallel: “assist customers with finding and selecting products, straighten and clean sales floor, operate the register.”

The formality of your style should match your subject and audience. If, for example, you are writing about a procedure that might be dangerous if performed incorrectly, then there's no room for informality and levity.  But if, for example, you're writing about a computer operation that would just waste some time if done incorrectly, then you might try to be lighthearted here and there.  The X for Dummies books contain many examples of procedures written in an entertaining way. Your style should always be correct and clear, however--never vague. Incorrectness harms the image of credibility you want to build, and vagueness defeats the purpose of instructions: to guide an audience reliably through a process.

• Chunking: Your instructions should be presented in memo form with the usual memo header: TO, FROM, DATE, SUBJECT. Name the group audience in the first line, for example, TO: Cashiers.

An introduction should (1) mention the procedure you will describe and the audience for whom the instructions are written, (2) supply an overall description of the process, (3) state why the process is an important one for the audience, and (4) encourage the audience to read the instructions to follow.

A description of the right preparatory conditions often comes next--like the ingredients section of a recipe; if the audience needs to have certain equipment, needs to be in the right place, needs to be in possession of certain skills, and so on, then describe these prerequisites before you go on to the steps of the instructions. Preliminary warnings might also be appropriate. If, for example, a person performing the procedure must wear certain articles of clothing, warn the audience that these must be obtained and put on first. If there are definitely certain people who ought to do the procedure and certain others who should definitely not, you might want to specify clearly who is to do and who is not to do what.

Sometimes background information is presented before the instructions get started, perhaps an explanation of how the procedure came into being and how it’s been modified through the years. Maybe definitions of terms need to be provided. Kolin’s model memo on flextime defines the word before getting into the policies concerning it.

The body of the instructions consists--naturally--of the steps that the audience must do to complete the procedure. These steps can be broken into headed sections (and often should be) with the steps themselves numbered or bulleted or marked with a wingding of some kind, like this:

Head
Introductory sentence

• step
• step
• step

Head
Introductory sentence

• step
• step
• step

Here are some generalizations that can be made about writing up the steps:

• always introduce a list with an introductory sentence--like the last one;
• write the steps in the form of commands--like this one;
• put the steps in their correct order;
• chunk very closely related steps together, but in general keep steps separate;
• stress particularly important steps and explain their importance, the reasons why your reader should do them;
• supply warnings before you state what the next step is. Do not write something like this: "Clean with a damp cloth. But unplug the unit first."

A conclusion may or may not be called for.

Visuals of various kinds might be helpful for your instructions. For example, clip art such as check marks and warning signs can make steps and cautions stand out. Images can be grabbed from the Web as well and you can draw arrows to parts of something being described. But you should primarily be concerned with making your language clear. Write relatively short sentences and do not hesitate, of course, to use second person you and commands. Boxes and lists in column form can also be used to good effect.

Especially helpful visuals in instructions for computers are "screen captures." These are copies of dialogue boxes that you might be talking about in a set of instructions. For example, if you are talking about the Save As option, the Save As dialogue box can be copied and placed in your instructions. Copy the box by pressing Alt and Print Scrn. Then position your cursor where you want the box to appear and paste. The box can be sized by clicking on it and dragging the "handles" that appear on its sides.

One last note: do not overdo eye-catching capitalization, underlining, bold, different fonts, and other typographic devices. DEVICES LIKE THESE SEEM TO SHOUT AT THE READER, AND NO ONE LIKES TO BE SHOUTED AT. See what I mean? Also, the more text a writer emphasizes, the less it stands out. Emphasize text sparingly. Emphasize by bolding or italicizing, not by capitalizing or, even worse, placing text in quotation marks.  Quotation marks do not emphasize text.  They indicate that (a) text is quoted or (b) text should not be taken seriously.  When a driver on Baytree, for example, turns south on Oak, s/he might notice the sign that announces that s/he "MUST" yield to pedestrians.  The quotes around the word must actually indicate that, well, the driver doesn't really have to yield. 

• Audience: Specify as narrow an audience as possible and mention this audience in your introduction, for example: "All English Department faculty members are assigned a number of English majors for advising.  New faculty members are responsible for familiarizing themselves with VSU policies and procedures so that English majors graduate in a timely manner.  This memo describes essential elements of the advising process for new faculty members."  Being clear on who your audience is and why it needs to know what you know should give you some ideas about what to include in your instructions.
  
  
• Message: The goal of your instructions is to supply your audience with the information that will enable the audience to actually do the procedure. So do not leave out essential information, especially warnings about how the audience can go wrong. Don't assume the reader knows something if he/she might not.  And don't hesitate to explain why something should be done, the reason behind it.  Most people are reasonable beings and appreciate knowing why they are being instructed to do something.
  
  
• Purpose: Remember that your purpose is not only to teach an audience how to do a process, but to teach an audience how to do a useful process. Make sure you take some time selecting a procedure certain kind of people need to know how to do.