The four moves — purpose line and recommendation first
◈ 6 cardsA recommendation memo makes four moves: a purpose line that says who asked for what and what the memo delivers; the recommendation in one sentence before any analysis; the analysis organised by criteria; next steps. This lesson writes the first two and shows the preamble that loses them.
Assembling a genre the textbooks do not print
Smith's sample memo is an announcement; Olds's is a budget note. Neither is the recommendation memo AFM 111 marks, so the shape is assembled from three things the sources do teach. From the memo (7.2.2): the header, and a direct three-part message — opening states the main point, body supports it, closing gives the action. From the direct pattern (4.1): the main point in sentence one, because a busy reader decides on the first screen. From the analytical report (7.3): the elements a recommendation carries — for whom and by whose request it was written, what was done, the conclusions and recommendation, the supporting analysis. Put together they are four moves, and R-memo marks each: purpose line → recommendation → analysis by criteria → next steps.
Move one — the purpose line
The purpose line is one sentence that says who asked for what, and what this memo delivers. It is not a description of the topic. This memo is about the digital press names a subject and does nothing else; the reader still does not know why she is reading. Lakeshore's purpose line:
> You asked Wren Advisory on 20 October to recommend what to do about the digital press, with a decision needed by 15 November; this memo gives that recommendation and the analysis behind it.
Who asked (Priya, by implication of you), for what (a recommendation on the press), by when, and what is delivered (the recommendation and its analysis). A reader who stops here knows what the document is.
Move two — the recommendation, in one sentence, first
The second sentence (or the first sentence of a paragraph headed Recommendation) states the answer — one option, its terms, no preamble:
> Recommendation: lease a new press (option C) on a three-year term with an upgrade clause, at about $58,000 a year with maintenance included.
Specific: which option, what terms, what it costs. It appears here, before any analysis, and again — at most — in the conclusion. Why first? Smith's argument for the direct approach: the reader is busy, decides on the first screen, and reads the analysis to check a recommendation, not to discover one. A recommendation withheld until page two reads as suspense, and suspense in a business document reads as a writer who is not sure.
The failure — the preamble
> After carefully considering all of the factors involved, and having weighed the various alternatives available to Lakeshore Print Co. against a number of important criteria, it is the view of Wren Advisory that, on balance, a number of considerations point toward…
Forty-six words, no recommendation. The preamble announces that thinking took place and postpones its result; it is the first-screen test failed in one paragraph. Delete it and the recommendation sentence is already there underneath.
Write the clinic's opening
For Grand River Family Dental: You asked, on 3 March, for a recommendation on replacing the paper appointment book with online booking software, for the dentists' decision at the end of March; this memo gives that recommendation. Then: Recommendation: move to an online-booking system with automated reminders (option C), at about $150 a month, with go-live in a quiet week in May. Two sentences; the reader has the purpose and the answer.
Type the four-move skeleton
The snippet is the memo's spine. Type it until the order — purpose, recommendation, analysis by criteria, next steps — is the order you draft in, not an order you rearrange into afterwards. The exam below asks for the first two moves for the bike-shop memo.