Similarities Between Memos and Business
Letters

You may not think of it immediately, but there are a number of similarities between memos and business letters. Please consider the following:

Letters and memos are both forms of business communication.

Letters and memos are written forms of communication used in business. Where a memo is used to communicate with someone in the same company, you would write a business letter when you want to ask a question, provide information, or forward documents to someone outside of your organization.

With each one, you will need to indicate who you are sending the communication to. In the case of a letter, you put the person or company's name and address on the letter before the salutation.

In the case of a memo, this information is indicated in the "To" field at the top of the page.

Letters and memos also include the name of who is sending the communication. If you are sending a letter on company letterhead, it indicates the name of the company and the mailing/street address. In the case of a large corporation, personalized letterhead indicating the name of the sender may be used.

A memo also includes the name of the person initiating the communication. This information is placed in the "From" field at the top of the page.

In business, the date the communication was sent is an important piece of information. This is always noted on a letter or a memo. In a letter, the date is placed after the inside address and above the salutation.

Recipients of letters or memos want to get some idea what the communication is about at a glance. The subject line tells them the purpose of your communication. You may want to make it stand out by bolding the text.

When writing a memo, the subject matter is typed in the "Subject" or "Re" field.

The next step in writing a letter or a memo is to fill in the body of the communication. Keep the communication relatively short and to the point. Memos generally don't run longer than one page; in the case of a letter, it make take multiple pages to write the information.

Some forms of letters, such as medical reports or legal opinions, can easily run for several pages. In this case, it is helpful to the reader if different sections of the text are divided up using subheadings and/or bullets to make it easier to read.

Although some people do sign memos if they are being distributed in hard copy form, this is not generally the case. Most often, only the writer's initials appear at the bottom left side of the memo. In a situation where the contents are transcribed by someone else, that person's initials also appear on the page.

A letter will have some form of a complimentary close, such as:

• Sincerely
• Yours Truly
• Yours Very Truly
• Respectfully

Then a few lines will be left blank, after which the writer's name will appear. He or she signs the letter in the space between the complimentary close and the name. As in the case of a memo, the writer's initials will be added underneath the signature, as well as the transcriber's initials.

As you can see, there are many similarities between memos and business letters, even though both of them are used to communicate to different audiences. As long as you know whether the person you want to communicate with is in your organization or outside of it, you will know which type of business communication you should use.

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