An Overall Reflection of Letters, Memos and E-Mail

So, we have came to the end of our class blog for group 1.  To wrap up this, we did an overall reflection on what we learned about letters, memos and e-mail.  

Letters are the most common writing method within this section.  It is the most formal of the writing formats and is used within most, if not all, businesses.  One pro of writing letters compared to e-mails are letters are seen as more professional and sometimes seen as more of a priority than e-mails.  Also, the content of letters are more secured than the content of e-mails, as several laws protect the contents of letters and e-mails are easier to be accessed by hackers. 

 However, compared to e-mails, letters arrive at their destination much slower.  Due to the protective laws and threats from hackers, letters are a more secure method of writing, especially for confidential information. Letters are one way to get the point across, but it is not the quickest way to get in contact with someone, especially whenever you might need an answer right there and then.  Nothing wrong with that at all, but might need to find a more efficient way to get a hold of someone. 

Memos, on the other hand, are used instead to relay different types of information to the internal employees of a business.  Memos can have many different subjects like new policies, meeting times and places, office parties, and many other instances.  Memos are the easiest writing method to convey a message to a large number of people. This is the case in also trying to see if someone seen the memo, because there is a "paper trail" and the memos go to everyone involved, it is very difficult to ignore the message of the memo.   

This can be also a very flexible way of communication and a very formal, they can be lengthy and in very fine detailed. I think this could be very good for a company when you are a very big named brand or even a smaller business.  They have a format almost like the block format for letters, which to me looks very formal when looking at a memo.  

E-mails are the final writing method of the section and are the most casual of the three.  Because of the casual nature of e-mails, they are not as commonly used within businesses as letters or memos.    E-mails must be used with caution as it is also the most risky format of writing because several people can view the email instead of just the intended recipient.  E-mail is also the fastest and possibly most efficient  form of writing compared to the others as the messages are sent through the internet and responses are just as easy and fast to send back. 

This can be when you need the answer within that work day, so that can be an convenience of the work place and can get your tasks done for the day. They can also be used for more simplistic messages and conversations.  Short subjects like confirmations and inquires that don’t require an entire letter are better off sent in an E-mail. E-mails are also not as lengthy as memos can be, they usually are ones that get straight to the point, unless there is a lot of information than that is understandable. 

Overall, the main takeaway I got from this section about letters, memos, and e-mails is that format and tone matter.  The topic of the message, the audience of the message, and the expected response of the message all play a part in setting the tone and format.   It may also show how professional your business should be when picking out what type of communication you mainly use. Granted, all of these could be used because we have one of each, internal, external or either case. Which ever piece you use, remember the format and tone.