Formal Business Policy Memo

Write formal business policy memo. Microsoft Word or RTF only.

Please bring a hard copy of your paper to class to discuss.

A policy memo is a practical and professionally written document that can vary in length from one page to over one hundred pages. In this assignment your memo will be two (2) pages, single spaced.

    What must be included:

• A statement of current policy
• Reasons for initiating changes
• Policy options to be considered
• Pros and cons of each option
• Recommended course of action
• Reasoning for selecting that course of action

It provides an analysis and recommendation regarding a specific situation or topic. A well-written policy memo reflects attention to an important issue.

In this case, you are to analyze and make a recommendation to support or not support the $15 hour minimum wage for workers to the mayor of a major city (not Seattle). Use facts that support your recommendation for or against. Please remember to cite your sources. Please research multiple sources to make sure you have the latest information and you have carefully analyzed the issue.

As mentioned in class, you still cite sources in a policy memo, but it is somewhat different.

Use APA for end of document.

In-text, clearly identify what is your writing and what came from a source, but the rules are more casual. For example, "According to a 2013 article in the Chicago Tribune, " wxyz......" This tells the reader you are now using source material and you have put that into quotes.

Please remember that you are not using footnotes.

Policy memo writing assignments are intended to promote the following learning outcomes:

• to help students learn how to write academically rigorous, persuasive papers about a specific “real-world” issue,
• to learn how to choose and craft a document’s content based on the needs of a particular audience [as opposed to general readership],
• to prepare students about how to write effectively in non-academic settings,
• to teach students to be client-oriented and to better anticipate the assumptions and concerns of their targeted readership, and
• to force students to create original work that synthesizes their research into a succinctly written document advocating change or a specific course of action.

With this in mind, you should not approach writing a policy memo like you would an academic research paper. Yes, there are certain commonalities in how the content is presented [e.g., a well-written problem statement], but the overarching objective of a policy memo is not to discover or create new knowledge.

Above comes from the following source: http://libguides.usc.edu/content.php?pid=83009&sid=3876760

How to write a policy memo: https://www.cornellcollege.edu/cornell-fellows/resources-fellows/policy-memo-guidelines.shtml

How to write a policy memo: http://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/36824/11-479Spring-2004/NR/rdonlyres/Urban-Studies-and-Planning/11-479Spring-2004/9CE4ACA2-EC3D-4C1D-91CC-27971E27DCF5/0/pmwriting.pdf (Links to an external site.) (Links to an external site.)