Module 2a — Office
Correspondence
and Records
| Course Guide | Module 1 | Module 2a | Module 2b |
sECTION 1: Correspondence, Conveying a Message
At the ILO, the process of creating correspondence is gradually undergoing change as a result of the multi-skilling of the workforce and the common use of word-processing software.
Not so long ago, the rules of page layout and format were the exclusive domain of secretarial staff. No one else needed to know about their intricacies. Today, with a few exceptions, staff who write documents also do their own formatting. You simply need to know more than before about layout and formatting of various types of office correspondence. It can be very time-consuming and troublesome if you don't.
Blurring of formats
The distinction between memos, faxes, letters, and emails is becoming increasingly blurred. Faxes and email are fundamentally only ways of transmitting documents from the sender to the receiver. Just because a document is being transmitted electronically should have no bearing on the format or style of the actual document. Rather than the document in its traditional letter, memo or report format being attached to a transmittal covering page, the actual document has become both the document in its own right and the transmission mechanism. This only increases the importance in applying general principles of good writing no matter what format your message takes.
Therefore, in this section of the module you will spend time reviewing some of the more important considerations for writing effectively independent of the form your message will take. Our focus is on function and the writing process rather than the format. In the second section of the module, we will look at the specifics of various formats.