
The Memorandum as a Management Genre (1989) [pdf] - dredmorbius
http://www.ismlab.usf.edu/dcom/Ch6_YatesMemoMgtCommQtly1989.pdf
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dredmorbius
I'd stumbled across this and simply found it fascinating.

Letter-writing itself, as a widespread practice, is fairly new, it relying on
post offices, stamps, and paper, and above all, _literacy_. The forms of
letters written in the 19th century were very much defined by guidebooks and
conventions.

Business writing itself is also highly formulaic, though it dropped much of
the verbosity (and social grace) of earlier forms, discussed in this essay.

Messaging-as-technology, the protocols, conventions, forms, usage, and
economics, are all mentioned, in particularly the induced demand created by
easier communications, storage, and retrieval (or reversal as practices were
limited or discontinued).

There's also the emergence of standard fields -- "From", "To", "Subject",
"Date", and "In reply to", which actually _predates_ the other four -- go Mutt
and threaded discussion!

The influences on subsequent communications formats, particularly Email and
Usenet, aren't mentioned, but are obvious.

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angry_octet
Great article on how the memo has a central place in bureaucratic decision
making.

[https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/06/memo-
to...](https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/06/memo-to-trump-
this-is-why-youre-losing/530490/)

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dredmorbius
That's actually where the Yates study reference turned up ;-)

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closeparen
What a quaint idea - that there could be any management genre other than the
slide deck.

I don't think a letter, memo, or report has ever been generated at my office.
Proposals, maybe. Any presentation of findings, recommendations, or status is
going to be a deck.

