The memo header

Four lines that replace the salutation

A memo has no Dear Priya and no Kind regards. In their place is a header of four lines — To, From, Date, Re — often under a letterhead reading MEMO or MEMORANDUM with the firm's name. Smith notes that email's header fields were modelled on the memo's, so what you learned about subject lines in module 9 applies to the Re line here. The header is the memo's record: it says who is accountable for the content, who received it, when, and what it is about — which is how it will be filed and found. A CC line is added when someone must see the memo but is not its reader: the Wren partner who supervises the engagement; the bookkeeper who will act on the figures. If the memo is printed, the writer initials beside the From line — a signature the genre keeps in place of a closing.

Worked example — Lakeshore's header

MEMORANDUM
To:    Priya Raman, Owner, Lakeshore Print Co.
From:  Sam Whitfield, Junior Analyst, Wren Advisory
CC:    Ngozi Achebe, Partner, Wren Advisory
Date:  15 November 2026
Re:    Recommendation on the digital press — lease a new press

Read it line by line. To names the reader with her role and organisation — not Priya, not Lakeshore: a reader in February, or the bank, should know from the header alone who received this. From carries the writer's name and title, because accountability attaches to a role: a junior analyst's recommendation is read differently from a partner's, and the reader is entitled to know which she has. CC names the partner who must see the memo but is not being asked to act. Date is the full date — day, month, year — because a memo is filed by it and its facts are true as at it. Re is a subject specific enough to file and to find: the topic and the position. Re: Press would be found by nobody; Re: Recommendation on the digital press — lease a new press announces the subject and the answer, which is what a busy reader wants before the first sentence.

Three defective headers

No date. A memo without a date cannot be filed, cannot be sequenced against the quotes it cites, and cannot be trusted in February — the facts were true when? Fix: the full date.

Re: Press. One word, no position. Fix: Re: Recommendation on the digital press — lease a new press, or at minimum Re: Digital press — recommendation. Specific enough that a colleague searching the file server finds it and knows what it says.

From: S. Whitfield. Initials and no title. The reader does not know who is accountable or in what capacity; a forwarded reader cannot reach the writer. Fix: name in full and title, firm where the reader is external to it.

Fix these yourself

To: Lakeshore — a company is not a reader; name Priya with her role. Date: Nov 15 — which year? Full date. Re: Meeting — meeting about what, with what outcome? Re: Press review meeting, 18 November — agenda. CC: everyone at Wren — CC only those who must see it; the partner, and the file address if the firm uses one.

Type the header cold

The snippet below is the Lakeshore header. Type it until the four lines and their contents — reader with role, writer with title, full date, specific Re — are automatic; the memo assessment's first mark is earned or lost before the first sentence.