A memo is read from the top down, and the four lines at the top decide whether anyone reads past them. Get the header wrong — a vague subject line, a missing date, a "From" that names a team rather than a person — and you have made the reader work before they reach your first sentence. Memo format is one of the few things in business writing with a settled answer, so there is no need to reinvent it. What follows is the standard header, the spacing that keeps it readable, and the sign-off conventions that tell colleagues how to respond.
The four header lines, and what belongs on each
Nearly every UK organisation uses the same skeleton: To, From, Date, Subject. Some add Ref, CC or Distribution below. The order rarely changes, because readers scan it in exactly that order.
To
Name the people who need to act, not everyone who might be curious. Use full names, and add a job title in brackets where two colleagues share a name: "To: Sarah Whitfield (Payroll)". For a group, write the group: "To: All Regional Managers" or "To: Customer Service Team Leads". "To: Everyone" tells the reader nothing about whether this concerns them.
From
Your name, not your department. If the memo genuinely comes from a group, name the person accountable for it: "From: Priya Raman, on behalf of the Finance Working Group". Add your job title when writing outside your immediate team, or to people who may not know you.
Date
Write the date in full — 3 March 2025 — rather than 03/04/2025, which is read differently on each side of the Atlantic. Use the date you issue the memo, not the date of the meeting it refers to. If several memos go out in one day, add the time so replies can be matched to the right version.
Subject
This is the hardest line to write and the one most often skimmed. Front-load the specifics. "Update" is a wasted line; "Staff parking: new permit system from 1 April" lets a reader decide in two seconds whether it affects them. Write it as a label rather than a sentence, leave off the full stop, and keep capitalisation consistent across your team's memos.
Spacing and layout that stay readable
Inside the body, single-space the lines and leave one blank line between paragraphs. Do not indent the first line — the blank line already marks the break, and indents plus blank lines look untidy. Left-align everything; justified text stretches the gaps between words and slows reading. A plain font at 11 or 12 point works best, with margins of about 2cm to 2.5cm.
The header sits at the top, flush left, with the four labels aligned so the eye can run straight down them. Do not add a separate title above it; the subject line is the title. Most memos should fit on one page. If yours runs to two, cut something before you shrink the font, and put the subject and date in a small header on the second page with page numbers.
Headings and structure inside the memo
Anything longer than half a page needs headings. For a memo that people will refer back to, number them — "1. Background", "2. Options", "3. Recommendation" — so a colleague can reply "see 2.3". For a shorter memo, plain bold headings do the job. Keep to one level of heading unless the memo is genuinely complex, and skip "Introduction": your opening paragraph is the introduction.
In a plain-text email memo, headings need a different treatment. Put the heading on its own line with a blank line above and below, and use capitals sparingly — a full line of capitals is harder to read than bold text.
Lists, action lines and the closing
Use a list when order or completeness matters, and prose when it does not. Bullets suit options and points; numbers suit steps and sequences. Introduce every list with a full sentence ending in a colon, and keep the items parallel — all beginning with a verb, or all beginning with a noun.
The action line is the part readers remember. Put it near the end, either as a bold line or under a short heading such as "Action required":
Action: branch managers to confirm their Easter rota by 12 April.
Name the person responsible wherever you can. "Someone should check the figures" guarantees that nobody does.
Sign-off and distribution
A memo does not open with "Dear..." and does not close with "Yours sincerely". There is no salutation and no complimentary close, because the header already identifies the writer and the reader. What you may add at the end:
- Your name and job title, if the From line is brief or the memo goes outside your team.
- Your initials, for routine internal memos where the writer is obvious.
- "Enc." or "Attachment:" followed by the file name, if anything is enclosed.
- "cc:" for people who need to know but do not need to act.
Order the cc list either by seniority or alphabetically, and stick to it. A handwritten signature is only necessary when the memo becomes a formal record — a policy change, a disciplinary note, or a document that leaves the organisation.
Common formatting slips
- Subject lines such as "Important" or "Update", which tell the reader nothing.
- Dates written as 04/03/25, which invite misreading.
- A From line that names a team, leaving no one to reply to.
- Reducing the font to 10 point to force a memo onto one page.
- Borrowing the salutation and sign-off from a letter.
- Numbered headings that jump from 1 to 3.
- An attachment mentioned in the text but not listed at the end.
A short check before you press send
- Are To, From, Date and Subject all present, and specific?
- Could a reader decide from the subject line alone whether this concerns them?
- Is the ask in the first two sentences, and repeated as an action line at the end?
- One page, 11 point or larger, margins at least 2cm?
- Names, dates and figures checked against the source?
- Is the cc list limited to people who actually need it?
A memo that follows the standard format becomes invisible. Readers notice only the content, which is exactly what you want. Keep the header tidy, keep the ask obvious, and keep the whole thing to a page — then send it and get on with your day.
