Paper: 07, Business Communication

Module: 18, Internal Written Communication

Prof. S P Bansal
Principal Investigator Vice Chancellor
Maharaja Agrasen University, Baddi

Prof YogenderVerma
Co-Principal Investigator Pro–Vice Chancellor
Central University of Himachal Pradesh. Kangra. H.P.

Prof. IpshitaBansal
Paper Coordinator Department of Management Studies
BPSMV, KhanpurKalan, Sonipat

Dr. Mani Shreshtha

Content Writer Haryana School of Business
GJ University of Science & Technology, Hisar

Items Description of Module

Subject Name Management
Paper Name Business Communication
Module Title Internal Written Communication
Module Id Module No. - 18
Pre- Requisites Principles of Effective Writing, Organization Orientation
Objectives To get familiar with types of internal written communication
Keywords Memoranda, Circulars, Newsletters, Notices
 QUADRANT-I

1. Module 18: Internal Written Communication

2. Learning Outcomes
3. Introduction
4. Memorandum
5. Office Orders
6. Circulars
7. Notice, Agenda, Minutes of Meetings
8. Suggestions and Complaints
9. Newsletters
10. Reports
11. Summary

1. Module 18: Internal Written Communication

2. Learning Outcomes:
By the end of this module, students will be able to
 familiarise themselves with various kinds of internal communication
 communicate effectively within the organization through written communication

3. Introduction:
When an employee interacts with another employee in the organization, it becomes a part of
internal communication. An effective internal communication is as important as an external
communication. It is required for the smooth functioning of an organization. During an
internal communication employees exchange their thought, ideas, views etc with other
employees of the organization. Internal communication happens irrespective of level of the
hierarchy in the organization. It includes all the communication among employees at inter and
intra departmental level. Internal communication is used to serve different purposes such as
giving instructions and orders, offering suggestions, filing complaints, sharing information,
and handling situations. A poor internal communication is having a direct impact on the
organization’s external communication. There exist a wide range of options before employees
for communicating internally. While communicating internally, employees use both oral and
written communication methods. When compared, written methods of communication are
more preferred over oral communication methods on the grounds of record keeping, legality,
standardization, and specificity. Main written communication options used within an
organization include memorandum, office orders, notice, circular, newsletters, minutes of
meeting, and reports. Each option is having a specific purpose to serve. Depending upon their
suitability to situation, a particular option is exercised over the other. Every employee is
expected to get familiar with all the options to make their best use for the smooth
communication flow in the organization.

4. Memorandum:
According to Merriam-Webster dictionary a memorandum is:
 A brief written message or report from one person or department in a company or
organization to another.

A memorandum is used for internal communication. A memorandum is also referred as

‘Memo’. Literally the purpose of a memo is to inform or to reveal. A memo is generally used
to provide information to other employees of an organization about a specific issue. It is a
written statement, a sender specifically prepares for receivers to appraise or inform them
about a particular matter or specific issue. These receivers also belong to the same
organization as of the sender’s. The shape of memo can be of a short note. A note that is crisp
in terms of its information content. A memo can be meant for a single person or a group or a
committee. When colleagues have to communicate within the organization, they can use
telephone as mode of communication. But during a professional communication, a situation
sometimes demands to keep a record of communication. In that case, memo can be used to
communicate for purposes such as requests, instructions, action taken, and suggestion etc. A
memo is not used for lengthy communication.

4.1. Format for a Memo: Although a memo serves the purpose similar to a letter but its
format is different. Generally companies go for a pre- decided format including all the
components of a memo that are fixed or standardised. A memo format consists of
following components:

4.1.1. Letter Head: A memo is written on a letter head. A letter head signifies the
address of the office of the sender. As the sender and receiver of the memo are
from same organization, it indicates the internal communication. In case, a
company is having different business units, the letter head conveys inter unit
communication.
4.1.2. Memorandum mentioned: Under the letter head, the word ‘Memo’ or
‘Memorandum’ is specifically mentioned to convey the type of internal
communication.
4.1.3. Memo number: A memo number is the identity of a memorandum. It
differentiates it from other memo and similar kind of communication. This
number is also mentioned while referring to a specific communication.
4.1.4. To: It indicates the information about the receivers of the memo. First and last
name of a receiver can be mentioned here. If information is meant for the all the
members of a department then name of the department can be mentioned. In
case, information is for everyone in the organization, a phrase ‘for everyone’ or
‘all the employees’ can be stated.
4.1.5. From: This part of the memo declares the sender of the information. Just like
‘To:’ in ‘From:’ column name of a person, a committee, or a department can be
mentioned.
4.1.6. Date: It indicates the date, month, and year of the writing of a memo. A proper
date format should be used and usage of abbreviations should be avoided.
4.1.7. Subject: A subject line indicates the specific purpose of writing a memo. Just
like a subject line of a letter or an email, it provides a hint about the main
content of a memo to the receiver. On the basis of subject line, a receiver
generally decides about the relevance of the information.
4.1.8. Main content: It is the main body of a memo that conveys the complete
message. All the principles of effective writing can be applied while writing the
message. It includes reference to the issue, factual information related to issue,
action to be taken or suggestions given related to the issue.
4.1.9. Cc: It tells about all those receivers who must receive the same information.
Generally, the name of persons indirectly concerned with the issue is mentioned
here.
 4.1.10. Signature: Signature followed by name of the sender (in parentheses) is
mentioned here. This name sometimes represents a group, committee, unit, or
department.

Blank format of a Memo

Letter Head
Including Name and Address of the Company

Memorandum

No………………..
Date: …………….
To: ……………….
From: …………….

Subject Line Subject Line Subject Line

Para 1: Main Text of the message Main Text of the message Main Text of the message
Main Text of the message Main Text of the message Main Text of the message Main
Text of the message Main Text of the message Main Text of the message Main Text of
the message

Para 2: Main Text of the message Main Text of the message Main Text of the message
Main Text of the message Main Text of the message Main Text of the message Main
Text of the message

Cc: …………..

Signature
(Name)

4.2. Tips for creating a memo: For writing an effective memo, you require fundamental
knowledge about principles of effective writing. Apart from that few points must be
remembered at the time of drafting a memo. These points are as follows:
 Avoid using salutation. Unlike letter, a memo does not carry a salutation. So do not
use dear or respected…
 Avoid using complementary closing. A memo does not include a complementary
closure, so avoid phrases like yours sincerely, yours faithfully, sincere regards etc.
 Always keep your subject line simple and specific. It increases the effectiveness of a
memo.
 Organise the matter for main content of the memo on the basis of priority of
information.
 Make sure that the word ‘Memo’ is clearly visible on the format.
 Try to draft the memo using second person. Instead of saying everyone is expected,
say you are expected.
 Used headings and subheads wherever required to present the information.
 Always put less important information at the end of a memo.
 Example of a Memo
ABC Ltd
83, South Avenue, Raj Singh Road, Kolar, MP

Memorandum

No.: 975/KV-I/10
Date: July 24, 2010
To: Marketing Department
From: Manager-HR
Sub: Fake Travelling Bills

It has been observed that many of the staff members of Marketing Department are
producing fake Travelling Bills for reimbursement of Travelling Allowance. Such a
practice not only ruins the culture of the organization but also questions the integrity of
a person.

All the staff members of Marketing Department are hereby requested to produce
Travelling Bills as per actual expenses. Remember integrity is the biggest asset of a
person.

(R Singh)

5. Office Orders:
In many instances, an authority has to give certain directions or instructions to their
subordinates. For such kind of downward communication, an officer order is passed.
Generally, an office order carries certain actions to be performed by its receivers. Non-
compliance of an office order may attract a disciplinary action against the receiver of the
order. Such orders can be issued in a memo format. As memos can be used for
communicating in any direction but office orders are strictly used for downward
communication. Some of the reasons for issuing an office order are promotion, increment,
demotion, transfer, changes in office timings, shifting of a place, termination etc. Following
are the few tips that can be used while drafting an office order:

 An office order should be crisp and short.

 Properly mention name and designation of the person or persons for whom the order
meant.
 It should be properly signed by the issuing authority.
 The purpose of the order must be clearly stated.
 Impact of non-compliance of order should also be mentioned.

Example of an Office Order

 Office Order

No.: 11/OO-J08
Date: March 10, 2008
To: Sales Executives-Marketing Department
From: Manager-HR
Sub: Revised office timings

As a result of decision taken in last month’s board meeting, you are informed that
office timings for marketing department from April 1, 2008 would be from 8.30 AM to
5.30 PM on all six days (Monday to Saturday) of the week. Sunday will be treated as
off day.

As a member of marketing team, you are instructed to punch your attendance at the
head office at least one time on either side of the office timings.

(J Kumar)

6. Circulars:
An office circular or a circular is related to wide circulation of information. It is used to
provide information to all or larger number of employees of an organization. The information
can be related to opening up of a new facility, inviting suggestions, seeking interest, visit of a
specialist, a party, rules and regulations etc. The basic purpose of a circular is to make the
receiver aware about a stated issue. A circular is also treated as an advertisement meant for
wider distribution. It is like information for each and every one. Following are the few tips
that can be used while drafting a circular:

 As a circular is meant for larger audience, a simple and jargon free language should
be preferred.
 It should be short and to the point.
 It should be properly signed by an authority.
 It must bear a unique number indicating specific communication.

Example of a Circular
 J&J Ltd
th
5 Crossing, Pune

Circular No. HR/07/11/21

Date: March 10, 2008

Sub: Opening of Day Care Facility

The management is planning to open a day care facility for the wards of employees in
the factory premises. All the staff members of the organization are requested to give
their suggestions on how such a facility can serve its purpose to the fullest.

Please furnish your information and suggestions as per the format given below:

Name of the employee:

Designation and Department:
Number of wards:
Ward (s) Name, Gender, Age:
Suggestion (s):

Kindly provide the information and suggestions in the office of the undersigned by
March 20, 2008.

(J Kumar)

Manager- HR

7. Notice, Agenda, Minutes of Meetings:

Notice, Agenda, and Minutes of Meetings are the three components related to organizing and
conducting a successful meeting. All the three components are the part of intra organization
communication.

In general, the purpose of a notice is to pass on specific information meant for specific
receivers. A notice is always issued by an authorized person. A notice needs to be drafted in a
summarized way so that the receiver could understand the information by just having a
glance. Notices can also be pinned on the notice board to convey the information to the
intended receivers. A notice is also having a legal relevance. For example, in case of ending a
contract of employment, a notice is issued. Another more popular purpose of drafting a notice
is to notify about a meeting. Before calling a meeting, it is essential to notify all the members
about it. This information must be sent to all the members who have a right to attend the
meeting. The proper circulation of the information has to be ensured by the secretary in
consultation with the Chairperson of the meeting. Such a notice must mention information
about the day, date, time, and venue of the meeting. If decided, agenda items may be
mentioned in the notice or attached separately. It has to be ensured that notice reaches all the
members within reasonable time before the meeting.

Minutes of the meeting are the official record of discussions and decisions at the meeting. The
minutes of the meeting are generally written by the secretary in consultation with the
Chairperson. It is always good for a company to company keep a record of minutes of
meeting. In certain cases, it is mandatory under the law to maintain minutes of meeting. The
minutes mention the main points of discussion and decision taken thereof. The person
 drafting minutes of meeting should doubly check the facts and decisions before making it
public. It is advisable to circulate a pre final draft of the minutes among the concerned
members for their observations. Minutes become effective only when they have been read at
the next meeting.

Agenda of a meeting states the activities that will take place during the meeting. An agenda
provides a guideline for the members to think and prepare about issues to be discussed. It
steers the meeting towards completion. An agenda also ensures that no issue is left unattended
during the meeting. Generally, similar format for writing agenda is adopted by organizations.
For example, first agenda item for most of the meetings is ‘confirmation of minutes of the
previous meeting’. Similarly, the last agenda item is ‘any other matter with the permission of
the Chairperson’. Rest of the agenda items are put on the basis of their priority. A little
modification can be made in the standard format as per the requirement.

In order to have detailed information about notice, minutes, and agenda, the module on
Meetings can be referred.

8. Suggestions and Complaints:

In the normal course of an organization, every staff member at one point or the other has to
give suggestion or file a complaint for a grievance. Both suggestions and complaints help the
organization in its smooth functioning. Many companies even encourage such kind of
activities to identify the flaws in their system. Broadly, suggestions are invited from staff
members for solving a problem and grievances are encouraged to improve the employee-
employer relationship. As such there is no standard format for writing a suggestion or a
complaint. Still the writer must keep in mind the basics of letter writing. Although less formal
in nature, suggestions and complaints should be written with utmost care. The words should
be carefully selected and the matter should be conveyed in the fewest possible words. Also, an
employee should keep in mind the formality of employee-employer relationship while
suggesting or complaining.

Example of a Suggestion letter

Sir

Sub.: Day Care Facility

I am working in the Human Resource department of this organization since 2010.

During last four years strength of the employees has grown exponentially. Average age
of our employees is 30 years. After going through the records, I found that around fifty
percent of the employees are having kids below the age of 5 years. Many a times
employees have to take leave just because they don’t have any one else to look after the
kids. Even if the employees make certain make shift arrangements, they got distracted
throughout the day. If calculated, such leaves amounts to a loss of hundreds of man
hours for the company. We understand the concept of time is money. We also
appreciate the fact that a focused employee is more effective than a distracted one.

Keeping above situation in mind I, therefore, suggest that a day care facility should be
started in the company premises under the supervision of qualified staff. I feel this
gesture by the management will improve the bonding of the employees with the
company.

Yours faithfully

(T Prakash)
Executive- Human Resources
 Example of a Grievance/ Complaint letter

Dear Sir

Sub.: New recreation room

I am working in the Production department of this organization since 2008. As we have

to work in shifts and under the strenuous conditions, the management has thoughtfully
started the facility of Recreation Room about a year ago. This is to bring to your kind
notice that large number of employees has joined the organization since last year. It
results into more usage of recreation room and the room is actually gasping for a space.
All the time it is overcrowded. There is only one Table Tennis table and that too is not
repaired for last two months. Water dispensers require cleaning. Lighting is also not
adequate. Only two indoor games are available, creating a constraint for number of
employees that can play at a time. Many times this constraint sparks an argument
among employees. Also, the staff members appointed for the upkeep of the room are
not performing their duty with due diligence.

It is requested that the management should look into the matter at the earliest. It is also
suggested that a bigger recreational room with more games and better facilities should
be earmarked so that larger number of employees can be accommodated at a time.

Yours faithfully

(Raghavan)
Production Engineer

9. Newsletters:
Another important intra-organizational communication tool is an employee newsletter. A
news letter is just like a news paper but for the employees only. All the news mentioned in the
newsletter has a direct relevance for the employees. Employee newsletters are used to provide
specific information for different purposes such as guiding, educating, increasing morale,
establishing a sense of belongingness, and updating the workforce. An employee newsletter
provides news from all sections of the organization irrespective of department, designation, or
unit. While creating a newsletter, it is important to ensure that the information included in the
letter is worthy and of interests of the readers. For drafting a newsletter following points need
to be kept in mind:

 Develop all the matter of the newsletter by keeping employees in mind.

 A newsletter should not be too long. A tabloid with four pages is generally sufficient
for a fortnightly newsletter.
 Keep the language as simple as possible. Matter should be informative not directive.
 Design the newsletter on the basis of certain themes.
 Decide the regular sections to be included.
 Fix the place of each section and maintain consistency for all editions.
 The sections can mention about safety and human resource, corporate social
responsibility, career advancement, retirements, company policies, relevant world
news etc.

Sample of a Newsletter in practice

 Source: http://alfa-img.com/show/employee-newsletter-suggestions.html

10. Reports:
As a part of intra-organizational communication tool, a report is generally prepared by middle
management employees to appraise the senior management about the state of affairs. The
purpose of such kinds of reports is to provide the information supported by facts and figures
to the senior management, so that a timely strategy can be formulated. Major purpose of
creating internal reports is to support decision making. A report can be a letter writing report
or a schematic report. The difference is of way of presenting information. Following steps can
be followed to compile information in the form of a report:

 Collection phase: Collect the relevant information. It includes news items, surveys,
pictures, figures, documents etc.
 Planning phase: Keeping in mind the purpose of the report, importance of the
collected material is decided. A logical sequence of presenting the information is also
decided. All the information is arranged on the basis of relevance and importance.
Planning is also done regarding which pictures or illustrations to use.
 Drafting phase: It is the report writing phase. All the planned sections are written and
main body of the report is created. A conclusion is also presented at the end.
 Editing phase: In this phase the prepared draft is examined on the grounds of
grammar, sentence structuring, style etc. It is also checked that whether the report is
serving its purpose or not. If allowed, always let someone qualified to go through the
report and suggest. Finally, incorporate any changes if required.

Reports can be of various types like financial report, marketing report, sales report, internal
quality assessment report, market survey report etc. Depending upon the purpose a report can
be written. For detailed information about report writing, a module on report writing can be
referred.
11. Summary:
An internal communication is required for the smooth functioning of an organization. During
an internal communication employees exchange their thought, ideas, views etc with other
employees of the organization. Internal communication happens irrespective of level of the
hierarchy in the organization. It includes all the communication among employees at inter and
intra departmental level. Internal communication is used to serve different purposes such as
giving instructions and orders, offering suggestions, filing complaints, sharing information,
and handling situations. There exist a wide range of options before employees for
communicating internally. Main written communication options used within an organization
include memorandum, office orders, notice, circular, newsletters, agenda, minutes of meeting,
and reports. Each option is having a specific purpose to serve. Depending upon their
suitability to situation, a particular option is exercised over the other. Every employee is
expected to get familiar with all the options to make their best use for the smooth
communication flow in the organization.