 Lecture 15, As-Salam-Alaikum. Welcome to the virtual university's course on business and technical communication. In today's lecture, we will be looking at memorandums, meeting documents and proposals. You will learn to plan, design and compose all of these memorandums which we normally call memos. Meeting documents will include minutes of the meeting and the agenda of the meeting and different types of proposals that you will need to write in business and technical writing. Now, memorandum or memo are brief informal reports that are used to establish your record. They generalize the communication process by transmitting the message from one or more authors to one or more recipients. Basically, this means that if there is a message that one author or more than one author or one sender or more than one sender wish to send out, then the memo puts down that message in a generalized form so that it can reach either one or more than one audience. We send memos for most of the time in business communication and technical communication because we have to communicate a lot of things to the juniors or superiors. And we communicate them as memos. You can use these memos for one-to-one communication. One person can write to another person or one-to-many. One person can write a memo to a lot of people. Or it can also be that some people have written a memo to a different person or a lot of people. These days, email messages are commonly used for memos. Email generally takes the form of memorandum because they are easy to use. You can easily transmit the message instantly from the sender to the receiver and you can get a reply within a few hours as well because obviously it has been received with speed. The memorandum is amongst the most versatile forms of organizational documents. The most variety is in memos. It can be used for different types of uses or different tasks. It is a versatile document. Its length varies a lot. Its purpose varies a lot. The audience is a different audience. You have to tailor and adapt your memo to the best fit. The memos could be brief research reports, progress reports to brief proposals and it is widely used to communicate technical and administrative information. In companies there is a lot of administrative information going back and forth between people and the most common form of communicating this administrative information is the memo. There are orders in a company to be exchanged, there are instructions, there are technical things that we have to tell on the operations side. For example, a manager working on the floor, most of the things communicate with the memo. The orders are given with less information. In a business environment, it is much more common to tell things as a memo. The words are informal. When you have to formalize the instructions, then a memo is sent. Memo and are written for various internal purposes. For example, they can be written to request information. If there is a need for information, then memorandum is used to make announcements. If there is a need to make an announcement, if there is a need to announce something in the company, then through memorandum that announcement is made. If there is a need to outline policies, then memos are used. If a company manager or MD or director has to tell their staff a new policy, then they will probably give information as a memo. Maybe they will put that memo on the company's notice board, send it to everyone and put a copy of it on the notice board so that people get it. Many times, when memos are done, the people working in the company who have to read them don't go individually, they just put it on the notice board. And sometimes they go individually or via e-mail. Even the minutes of meetings are used to send someone a memo. So that whatever meetings are done, the summary of the recap is sent to the people as memos. So in most organizations, memo play a crucial role in establishing a record of decisions, requests, responsibilities, results and concerns. That is to say, whatever decisions are made in an organization, or any requests that someone has made from one another in a formal way, or any responsibilities that have been given to different people in an organization, or any reports or any research that has any results, and apart from that, all the concerns of management, employees, all the problems, all the questions raised, are recorded in memos and sent to each other. Memo has different parts. There are different features of a memo and there is a distinct way of organizing a memo. The main thing that we will be looking at first is the memo heading. And it's a very distinctive element of the memorandum because it's used to frame the message in a very accessible and transparent manner. The way the headings of your memo are designed, one of the aspects of your memo will be the content. The person who reads it will be able to understand it very easily because he will be able to understand it in the heading. And the other aspect is that the way your heading has been designed or the words used in it, the person who reads it will also be interested in it. If the heading is like this, when he sees it, he will be able to understand what will happen in the future. So it's obvious that the readers will read it very carefully instead of thinking that the heading will be so confusing that they will not be able to understand what we will be able to read in the future. In this example, as you see, there are four different sections to the heading. They include the section which gives the people who the memo is addressed to, which says to, then it says who the memo is from. Then there is the subject line which gives what the memo is about and the date. In the first part, in this section which is entitled to, the writer will identify the recipient clearly. You will use the title if the recipient uses a title and the recipients may be one person or more than one person or a group of people. So depending on who the memo is going out to, that will be the people who will be addressed. You will not give a postal address on the memo because the memo is an internal piece of communication and it is assumed that it is going to people in a particular office from somebody within that same office. So in the memo, you will not write the two parts, but you will write the names of the people and if they have a designation, they will write whether they are the manager, assistant manager, etc. and their title, if they use a title, Mr, Mrs, Mrs, Doctor, Professor, etc. you will write that. Apart from this, in the section from, it will be written to whom the memo is from. In that, obviously you will write your name, if you have a title, you will write it, if you are the head of a department, plus your contact number, etc. What is the extension of your office? You can write that. So that will be the identification of the author so that it is clear who the memo is going out from. The third element is the subject which will give a clear detailed identification of the subject that is under discussion and then the date, obviously, so that it is clear when this memo was sent out and it can be on the record. The second section of the memo, which is the body of the main, body of the memo, is generally organized in such a way that the topics are in order of importance. The more important things, they come in the beginning, in one memo, and the less important things, they come after that. The key statements come first and then the details afterwards. So one way of, one organization pattern would be in order of importance. And then within that, for every topic or every area, you will put the key statements first and then give the details and then the key statement for the other topic and then the details of that. So whatever topics you are writing, if there is more than one topic in that memo, the most important thing is to write them first and the most important thing is to write them later. And whatever you will write first or later, the key points in that too are the key points of a topic. You will write them first and then you will share the details of that. Also the memorandum should normally begin with a brief summary statement. In the beginning, you should give one summary, one sentence or two sentences so that you can know what is in the whole memorandum. And this will identify the key topics and the scope of the information. In this one, we have been given the subject heading which is the request for an image digitizing system to support ongoing research and it gives the cost as well. This is the subject of detail. What is this memo about and what is it? Then there is a small summary in which it is said that what things must have been discussed in this whole memo. And as you will see, this summary is only two or three sentences. Then there is the background which is divided into different sections. Normally memos may be very long or they may not be very long. But if they are long memos, then the background area will be divided into sections as well. In this one, we have been given a problem and it is highlighted by giving it a heading of problem. And the author has given the background in terms of what the existing problems are. And then after having given the problem, then this author will go on to talk about how this problem can be solved. The elements of a usable memo, as we said, are the heading, the subject line, which will define the purpose of the memo, the introductory paragraph, which will give a summary. Then topic headings. If the memo is long, then there will be different topic headings. If it's a short brief memo, then it might not have topic headings. If there is information that is not very easily accessible in terms of text, then there will be visuals used to explain that text or to highlight that text. For example, there could be graphs or figures used. Another important element of a memo is the spacing of the paragraphs. You will not indent the first line of every paragraph. The first line of every paragraph that will not be indent on the inside will come in a straight line with the rest of the lines. In addition, the lines between the paragraphs will have a single space and there will be a double space between the different paragraphs. So, there will be no indentation, single spacing within the paragraph and double spacing between paragraphs so that the paragraphs become distinct from each other. If the memo is long and goes on to two pages, then there will be a header on the second page, which will include the name of the person who is sending the memo and the page number and the date. Also, please note that the memo will be different from a letter. In that, in a letter, you write your sincerely, etc. and sign the letter. A memo will not be signed by anybody because you will write your name, the sender's name in the form line in the heading of the memo. In a letter, the form line does not start, so it is necessary to write your name in the form line. Also, if you are sending more than one copy to different people and you have not written the name deliberately, missed out some names in the two section, then you will write their names at the end. You will give a copy notation. Who is it? Who is it? Who is it? Who is it? Who are the additional people who this memo has gone out to? Now, another thing, the main document that we will look at in this lecture is meeting documents. As I said earlier, there are two different types of meeting documents that we will be looking at, minutes and agendas. Memo's were things or memo's were documents that were used to communicate only in written form, so that they could be put down on paper and so that they could be a record of them. The other form of communication that is normally very common in organizations is meetings. Where people get together, it can be just two people or more than two people, they get together to discuss different issues. Now, meetings need to have an agenda. It needs to be decided what is to be discussed in the meetings and what has been discussed in the meetings needs to be recorded in the form of minutes. These two documents are tools which encourage productive and effective meetings. Agendas or minutes because of them, meetings are efficient and productive. If you sit in a meeting without any agenda then maybe you will get a toast or something positive. So it is very important that an agenda is decided that these are the things to be discussed in this meeting. Apart from that, if there is an informal meeting, then that also happens. But when an agenda happens, then it is easy to come back to the point. The two principle meeting documents, as we said will tell the participants what is to be discussed in the meeting and then minutes will record what actually occurred. Let us first look at the agenda. Because obviously, before a meeting the agenda is planned. Minutes are written later. An agenda is a simple list. There is nothing complicated about it. It is very simple and it is just a list of things which need to be discussed in the order in which they will be discussed. The first things that are planned will be written first and the meeting that will be discussed later will be written later. So it will be a simple list of 1, 2, 3. Along with this, if there are different people who will discuss different things, then their names will be written along with the topics. So basically, a list of things will be responsible for discussing them or who have agreed to lead the discussion on specific matters. A lot of the times in meetings a meeting may be called by a manager, but there may be different supervisors within the meeting who will be bringing forth different issues and who have discussed with the manager earlier that we will bring up these points. So then their names will be included in front of those points. Agendas, as I said help to focus a meeting on a variety of topics and the core topics and they also allow you or the person who has called the meeting to control the pace and the flow of the meeting. The agenda is that things do not go here and there. The main topics that are discussed if there are a lot of things to discuss in the meeting, then it becomes easy to discuss. And the items and the topics that have to be discussed can be discussed easily and the decisions can be easily discussed. So it helps to act upon having a solid agenda helps to act upon what needs to be discussed in the meeting. If meetings which do not have agendas or which do not have published agendas generally seem unfocused and unproductive. A lot of the times the person who has called the meeting might have an agenda in his or her mind but it has not been published. It has not been printed out, typed out written down and given to the people who are attending the meeting. So even though the person who has called the meeting has an agenda they have a plan of what needs to be discussed the people who are attending the meeting do not know what needs to be discussed. And as a result the meeting can somehow sometimes seem unproductive to the people who are attending and sometimes it can also become unproductive because it is only in the mind of the person who has called the meeting and he or she may waver from the point. So therefore it is important that if you are calling a meeting you should prepare and circulate an agenda of items to be discussed for each meeting. Circulation of an agenda before a meeting will allow your audience to enter their responses to the items that you will discuss and it will help stimulate the discussion. Obviously those of you who have to attend the meeting if they are already aware that these specific points will be discussed in this meeting they will also think about them and they will also know what we have to say about these topics and due to this your discussion and your meeting will be more productive. So those of you who are attending the meeting do not have any idea about what the meeting is about just know that our boss has called a meeting and he or she is going to the meeting or he or she is going to the meeting with fear that I don't know what will be discussed. So then the result will be that he or she will sit quietly in the meeting and no discussion will be possible with you and you will not get their ideas and maybe your ideas will not reach to the meeting. So it is very important that the agenda should be circulated and given to people so that they can think about it. Agendas may be circulated by either email or hard copy which means in paper form actually print it out and give it to people. Now both have their advantage the advantage of hard copy agendas is that these agendas may be brought if there are papers in someone's hand they are circulated as hard copy and given on their desk so they can take that paper and give it to the meeting and on that they can take notes of the meeting about the points which are written about these points. The advantage of sending agendas by email is that they reach people immediately and there is no risk of being lost because we did not get them because emails reach everyone in their inbox. Paper form can be that someone kept it on a desk and lost it under a file so people who are experienced in leading meetings recognize that both hard copies and electronic copies of agendas and email copies are important but they are also aware that these are usually misplaced as well. Paper form can be easily lost. E-mail is often that people read and delete or leave it in the computer and do not take out the printout. When there is a meeting after 2-3 days they forget that the agenda was exactly that they have a vague idea. So experienced meeting leaders bring extra hard copies so that those who do not have hard copies can catch them. So there should be enough copies of the agenda present to circulate amongst those people who are present at the meeting. An example of an agenda is in front of you. There could be different points. You will list them in numerical form. For example, a report by Mr. Hamid on the investigation of possible security software. The second thing to be discussed in this meeting will be reported by Ms. Sara on development of database prototypes. The third thing will be discussion of possible hardware platforms. Now in this third point it is not indicated who will be leading this discussion and who will be basically who will be putting forth these ideas. So it is assumed that this will be a general discussion. The fourth and fifth points also are general. It does not say who will be discussing them. So it is assumed that it will be the meeting leader or the person who is called the meeting who will be in charge of the meeting at this particular point. The reviewing of deadline for projects and agenda for the next meeting. So if you notice in this meeting the agenda for the next meeting is also circulated. So it is probably a meeting which is a regular meeting. Maybe every week or every month the agenda for the next meeting will be given from the beginning that we discussed this today and in the next meeting we will discuss these areas. When a meeting is done then what is discussed what actions are decided all those things should be recorded in some way. And that record is kept in the form of minutes. I will show all of you have heard of minutes but a lot of you may not be aware of exactly what they involve and exactly how they are taken because you have not been involved actively in taking down minutes of a meeting. The advantage of keeping minutes of a meeting is that they keep accurate record of what has happened whether the meetings have been formal or informal taking down minutes helps people remember what went on in a meeting and that is why they are an essential part of organization life. Whether the meeting is between two people or whether the meeting is between whether it is a large meeting with a lot of people present minutes need to be kept in some form or the other. The minutes maintain an institutional memory of all actions taken or proposed and key points of discussion. Whatever actions have been taken in a meeting and the actions that have been suggested and those that have been suggested and the key points of discussion and the main things that have been discussed in the meeting through the minutes are recorded in a formal way. Other than this the concerned people who may not have come to the meeting but it is important that they know what happened in this meeting through the minutes they can also get information. So, apart from keeping a record minutes are also used to inform appropriate people who were not present at the meeting. They can inform them of what key actions were taken and what decisions were taken and what items were discussed. Minutes can be both formal and informal. Formal minutes are often required by by law, by federal state, local laws, by laws, charters, regulations and then they will obviously be more organized. They will be they will be more disciplined in a way that they will be governed by a set of rules which will be dictated by whoever wants the minutes whether it is if it is the federal state for example that is requiring minutes of a meeting for a government body then maybe that state then has some guidelines on what needs to be included and how those minutes will be formatted. Also formal minutes are usually distributed to the members of the group before the next meeting starts. So, the things discussed in the last meeting are distributed to the group in the next meeting. These are the things that we discussed last time. After they have been distributed then they also need to be approved. A lot of the times some people might say that the things we discussed they did not have this decision they had this decision because people might either remember differently or the person who has written the minutes has recorded them differently. So, a lot of the times they are not approved directly but they are approved after amendments have been made. So, that might take some time of the meeting as well approving minutes of the previous meeting and making the necessary amendments. Some minutes are legally part of public record and are available to anyone, the general public. So, those minutes may then be put in archive or files which are accessible to people who have not been part of the meeting or who are not part of that particular organization. Often however, organizational minutes are private and confidential documents which should be distributed to only to appropriate individuals. Sometimes there are minutes in which the general public may be accessible but most of the things discussed in a meeting are only for the organization and maybe not everyone is accessible in that organization. Some minutes of meetings are accessible to the entire organization or are allowed to see and some meetings are accessible which are allowed only to very limited people. So, if the minutes are confidential then each page should be stamped with a message such as confidential do not distribute so that it is very clear that this paper or this record is not to be shared with anyone apart from the people who are in possession of it. There are some things which are usually included in formal minutes and those are specifically the name of the group meeting and what kind of meeting it is. For example, if it was a general meeting, an emergency meeting, a board meeting or it was a meeting devoted to one single issue, a meeting called specifically to discuss one particular topic etc. So, whatever people who are in that meeting or who are included in that meeting their name plus what kind of meeting it is. There is a regular meeting and an emergency meeting etc. Those things will be mentioned in the minutes. Apart from this, where the meeting was and when it was. This will also be written. The people who attended the meeting, who did not come, who were present and who were absent and apart from that, they were listening to what was being discussed in the meeting. Apart from that, if there is a public meeting where there is a public meeting and there is a large audience, obviously the name of the audience will not be written, but if there is a private meeting, then the audience of that meeting will be written. So, basically who attended and who did not attend and any other people who were present, their names will be written. Also, it is very important to note in a meeting, who called in the minutes, who called the meeting and at what time it was called. So, where we will also record when the meeting was held and the exact time of when it was held it is also pertinent to record when the meeting was called. The order of that meeting should be held, when it was issued. When that decision was taken, it should be given to the public committee or with information of the meeting. Also, we need to in minutes we need to record a report of whether or not the previous meetings minutes were read out whether they were discussed or not and also we need to keep note of the fact whether the previous meetings minutes were approved and if they were approved, were they approved directly or were they approved by the amendments. Minutes will also include summaries of any reports presented to the group and any action taken on them. This action could be acceptance, approval, endorsement, referral, etc. So, whatever reports were presented, their summaries were not complete reports, just a brief summary and what action was taken on it. Apart from this, the different items discussed in a meeting, their summaries or if important issues were discussed, their summaries will be mentioned in minutes. So, all these summaries of reports, summaries of all important items that have been discussed. Minutes will also include a record of all formal motions. Along with the name of the person or the individual who made the motion. Also, there will be a record of the vote on all motions. So, a record of that vote including the number of votes for the motion and number of votes against the motion and the number of people who were abstained, who did not take a particular side. You will also record the time that the meeting was formally concluded. So, you will name the time when the meeting started and also when it concluded formally. When I say formally, it's important to note that a lot of the times meetings end formally but people still hang around in the room where the meeting was held and they talk informally. Those are things that will not be included in the minutes and that time when it ended in the time of the meeting. So, you will not include the meeting after formally ending. So, it's important that we note that when the meeting will end formally. Informal minutes also include the date of the meeting and the names of all members attending or absent. Just as it will be in formal minutes, it will be in formal minutes but the informal minutes will focus more on summarizing key points of discussion and listing of discussion items to be performed by individuals or the group. In formal minutes, there will not be so much detail about what the motions were presented and what was mentioned but in formal minutes, the main discussion will focus on them and key points will be summarized. Now, the third thing that is very common in business situations, in organizations, in business and technical communication those are proposals. In a proposal, authors identify a specific problem and state how they will solve that problem. So, a problem is identified and then is given as to how it will be addressed. Most organizations rely on successful proposal writing for their continued existence. Now, because every organization is faced with a problem, it is important that those problems are identified and proposals are written so that those problems can be solved. Therefore, as part of an organization you will probably spend a major part of your time, of your professional life writing proposals because they will be things that need to be done, they will be actions that need to be taken and they will be taken on the basis of proposals that have been written. Proposals are carefully prepared and just as carefully reviewed by granting agencies. Now, obviously if you have made a proposal, you need to prepare it very carefully because it is going to be read very carefully by whoever is going to be granting permission to carry out what you have suggested in your proposal. So, it is very important to write a proposal carefully because it will be carefully reviewed and after that it will be approved. I think that the proposal is not only strong with the air, in a proposal if you are doing a lot of good things but there is no doubt in it, then there will be no life in that proposal. So, if your company has a lot of credibility, but there is no doubt in your proposal, then there will be no life in it. So, it is not only the name that is important of the person who is writing the proposal or rhetoric that is included in the proposal. There needs to be solid information that is given in the proposal. Successful proposals demonstrate that you understand the scope of the problem, its background, its theory, the application of it and furthermore that you have developed a valid and well-focused approach for reaching proposed objectives. So, you need to be clear with these things you need to have a scope, you need to have a focused approach for reaching the objectives that you are proposing in your proposal. All proposals will develop a plan of action in response to a specific need or problem as I said earlier. There will be a problem that will be identified and that will be taken. Some proposals are external. They are written in response to a request for proposals. So, there has been a request Someone requested from outside of the company and as a result of that a proposal can be written. Or the proposals could be in response to an invitation to bid that has been published by an external organization for example. In a newspaper someone has asked for a bid and for that your company wants to write a proposal. These are external proposals which will be read by the company but also by the outsiders. Other proposals are internal written in response to a need within your own organization. They will not be shared with anyone outside but inside your company there is a need to write a proposal and that is why the proposal is being written. Your proposal must show that you understand the nature of the problem and that you have a specific and well developed plan for arriving at a solution. So, whatever the purpose of writing the proposal whether it is external or internal the audience you need to have a well determined scope and focus of the problem and you need to have well defined you need to have a well defined and well developed plan for finding the solution of that problem. A lot of proposals have one structure generally they share the same structure for identifying the motivating problem the objectives and the proposed course of action. There are three sections in the proposals. What is the problem? What is the thing that will proceed with the proposal? What are the objectives? What do you want from the proposal what do you want to do? What actions will be achieved? Now, in the general structure you need to learn the basic structure of a proposal and you need to be aware that they share a general document architecture which is usually modified to suit specific circumstances. There is only one general structure for different circumstances it is adapted. The structure of a proposal can be broken down into three parts the front matter the body which will include the introduction the technical approach management requirements and the work plan and the end matter. Let us have a look at what these involve. The front matter of a proposal includes the letter of transmittal the tricycle page summary, table of contents of figures and tables the body will include the identification of the motivating need or the problem. In the front matter you will have detailed list what will be included in this proposal. In the body the problem due to which this proposal is important you will identify it. You will also develop the immediate context in which this problem has been highlighted give a little background in which context the problem has been highlighted what is the need why this problem was highlighted what were the results of which this problem has been raised. The external proposals you need to be sure that you are responding to the published need if the proposal is in response to an external bid then you need to be sure that you are actually on the same track and that the motivation has been identified which has been identified by the outside agency is met in your proposal or is addressed in your proposal. In the body you will focus your proposal by stating the key technical issues as you perceive them underline the motivating problems. Any key issues any technical issues which you are proposing about which is being discussed you will highlight them you will focus on them and any motivating problem under which the proposal you are writing you will highlight it regarding your technical issues. You will also state very clearly explicitly what your objectives are. As a result of this proposal what results do you want clearly you will have to tell in your body. You will also explain and identify completely and fully the technical approach you are taking to reach your objectives. Any technical way in which you will reach for example if you are bidding for the construction of a building then you will have to give the technical details of how you will construct the building what equipment you will use etc. You will have to write the technical details of how much resources you will use how much material you will use you will also ground your technical approach which you will tell in technical in a brief explanation of the theoretical background so that when you are telling your technical approach you will get a little background which is applicable theory the way you will make things the analytical models used in it if any previous question has been asked and what are your ideas and hypotheses you will include. You will also present your method and design for reaching your stated objectives as I said earlier as well you will state clearly how you will reach your objective you will most likely make reference to figures it is technical information that you are presenting you will most likely be using some kind of figures to explain that technical information state also how relevant data will be acquired and if you need to collect any data to make your case wrong and to reach your objectives and also apart from stating how it will be acquired it is just as important how it will be analyzed so you need to also describe what the analysis method of the data will be then you will analyze it you also need to explain clearly how you will manage the development of your proposal project because proposal reviewers pay strict attention to this section because here you are showing that you have the required know-how to bring the project to completion when you tell all your technicalities that this work will be like this then you also need to tell how you will develop your work how you will manage it because the proposal reviewers will also want to see that you can complete this work successfully or not and in this section you will present the following information you will give a timetable you will list the required facilities and resources you will list all the material and equipment that will be used and all the personnel which basically means the human resources that will be used or the people who will be involved in that project if need be then you will include their resumes in appendices whatever you will tell that these people involved in this project so that the people who are reviewing the proposal they will know that the people involved in this work what are their needs you will include a work plan in the body sometimes called a project plan as a separate section if your proposal is lengthy if it will be a long proposal then you will give a work plan separately preliminary project plans or initial project plans are also sometimes appropriate in feasibility and recommendation reports a lot of the times you will be giving preliminary short project plans and then you will give longer proposals if you are giving feasibility and recommendation reports also most project reports refer to all or part of previously existing project plans if any projects have already been made then most of the project reports refer to them the end matter of a proposal will include a bibliography in which you will give a list of the previous proposals or reports or you have read to write this proposal you will include resumes as I said earlier if you are involved in the project and any appendices which will include any additional information that you feel should be read by the reviewer but is not absolutely necessary to put in the main text so these three things you will not be given in the end matter bibliography, resume or appendices proposals may be written either written or oral they may be for government agencies or for the private sector so it is keeping in mind whatever type of proposal it is written or oral if it is oral then generally informal if it is written then obviously you will follow the formal format there will be no such format in oral other than this for government agencies or private sector you will keep this in mind when you write a proposal so basically in this lecture today we discussed memoranda or memos and how to write different types of memos in a business environment we looked at the different types of meeting documents which included agendas and minutes and we looked at proposals and the structure of proposals what a proposal is and how a proposal is structured the different elements of a proposal I hope you will find these things useful when you are actually applying them in your business I will see you next time Allah Hafiz