Internal Memos: Making Recommendations/Dictating Policies
Recommendation first

­ Provides your reader with a horizon of expectation, a framework for understanding the rest of the document.

Internal Memos: Making Recommendations/Dictating Policies
Order of facts/information/evidence:

Most important to least important.
­ Like newspaper stories, this ensures the most important elements are actually read by busy or distracted managers/personnel.

Least controversial to most controversial.
­ Readers are more likely to accept an author’s argument in they agree with the first thing they read.

Negative to positive.
While readers will be impressed with your objectivity in presenting the cons, they will also encounter your positive argument last, in the stress position of the document.