- Memorandums or memoranda brian garner how to#
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Memorandum is defined as a document, or a note, that goes alongside financial statements or general ledger entries. In this aspect, it can be seen that the primitive motif of the memorandum is to ensure that these transactions or ‘notes’ are mentioned alongside the financial statements so that the users of the financial statements have a complete understanding of the process in itself. Memorandums are created in order to combat this particular issue.
Memorandums or memoranda brian garner full#
When such situations arise, accountants need to make the necessary amendments to their books, so that the books are able to comply with the accounting principle of full disclosure. Generally, things might not always go as planned, and therefore, organizations need to adjust in accordance with these activities.
Memorandums or memoranda brian garner series#
The series draws on advice in Garner’s new book, the HBR Guide to Better Business Writing.During the normal course of the business, there are a lot of transactions that require a certain explanation. Garner’s blog series on business writing. Acronyms make writing easier but reading harder. By the time you find it (or give up trying), you’ve lost the writer’s train of thought. You find yourself scanning backward through the text, hoping to find the first appearance of that acronym or else words that might fit it. Surely you’ve had this experience as a reader: you encounter an acronym (a long one if you’re particularly unlucky) and can’t connect it with anything you’ve read in the document so far. People don’t want to master your arcane vocabulary to get what you’re saying. It may be convenient to refer to COGS instead of spelling out “cost of goods sold.” But if you also throw in acronyms such as ABC (“activity-based costing”), EBITDA (“earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization”), and VBM (“value-based management”), only the accountants in your audience will follow you - you’ll lose everyone else. Readers find acronyms tiresome, especially ones they’re not familiar with. So you want short sentences and long main clauses and subordinate ones.
It’s true of syntax no less than it’s true of eating or anything else. Monotony, as Cicero once said, is in all things the mother of boredom. Vary the length and structure of your sentences.
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How do you identify passive voice? It’s invariably a be-verb or get, plus a past-tense verb.
But if you develop a strong habit of using active voice, you’ll largely prevent convoluted, backward-sounding sentences in your writing. Don’t write “The closing documents were prepared by Sue” instead, write “Sue prepared the closing documents.” This guideline is hardly absolute - sometimes passive voice is the most natural way to say what you’re saying. If you’d say something as a contraction, then write it that way.Īvoid passive voice. But you won’t be breaking any real rules if you use them - and they counteract stuffiness, a major cause of poor writing. Many writers have a morbid fear of contractions, having been taught in school to avoid them. Those are friendly words that pull readers into a document. Don’t overuse I (try not to begin paragraphs or successive sentences with it), but do lean heavily on we, our, you, and your.
Memorandums or memoranda brian garner how to#
When you write e-mails, reports, letters, and other documents, here’s how to keep your readers alert and responsive: And remember what George Washington said when questioned about the fallen cherry tree: not “It was accomplished by utilizing a small, sharp-edged implement,” but “I used my little hatchet.”
Think of Winston Churchill’s famous phrase blood, toil, tears, and sweat. The most engaging communicators avoid trite expressions, whether in conversation or in writing. It seems obvious that you shouldn’t put your audience to sleep, doesn’t it? It should also be obvious to people who deliver dull presentations or talk in circles at dinner parties - but consider how many boring speakers you’ve had to endure.
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