LAE 773517 Research: Memo

Purpose:
Memo, in the world of education research IS NOT the kind of official communication you get from a
boss or colleague in the world of school/business. Memo IS a brief, unofficial writing-to-learn genre
used by researchers to gather their thoughts for variety of purposes:
To reflect on events in their own research lives (e.g., assumptions, decisions)
To respond to others research that might be relevant to their own
To try out analyses of data
To make methodological decisions
Memos ofter serve as a means for individuals and research teams to generate material that they later
use in formal, public writing.

Audience:

Since this is writing to learn, your primary audience is yourself; conventions are largely unimportant (for
example, you need not write in complete sentences or use punctuation).

For this regular assignment, your audience will also be us: your colleagues (including Dr. Sherry) in LAE
7735. You should expect to share your work and to read/respond to others each time you compose a
memo.

Process:

Writing a memo is low-stakes writing-to-learn. It may be useful to think of it like free writing or a
terrific ten (Lawrence, 2012), in which you write for an uninterrupted period of time on a self-chosen
topic of personal importance.

Each time a memo is assigned, I will offer you the opportunity to develop for homework something we
have tried out together in class. However, you may choose to write about your own topics, as long as
they are related to your research.

Please post your memo to the discussion forum on CANVAS (e.g., Memo4). These forums are
numbered and ordered chronologically by due date. If you wish, you may upload a file attached to a
post instead of copy/pasting into the discussion forum.

Please respond to each of your colleagues memos. For this to work, we must decide on a posting
deadline to allow readers time to respond. You may respond via a threaded reply or by downloading
and annotating the text, then re-uploading a file. Please make at least one response to each of your
colleagues. When you respond, please remember the following guidelines:
DO encourage, ask questions, disagree.
Possible response stems:
DO draw on your own experiences as
Id like to hear more about
researcher/teacher.
Why did you decide to
DO NOT comment on spelling or make other
It sounds like youre
product-oriented comments
What if you

In my experience, it can be
Please bring a copy of your memo to class and come
prepared to discuss your own and others work.

Rubric:
Each memo is worth 5 points but is graded for completion: if you write something and respond to all of
your colleagues, you will receive full credit.

2005-2012 Ann M. Lawrence

COMMON OUTLINE FOR AN ANALYTIC MEMO

Results/Findings (Evidence)
Discussion (Claims about the Evidence)

COMMON OUTLINE FOR A THEORETICAL MEMO

Summary (of secondary source(s))

Evaluation (of secondary source(s) in terms of your current writing project)

COMMON OUTLINE FOR A METHODOLOGICAL MEMO

Decision
Reasons

POSSIBLE MEMO STARTERS

"I just have to start typing."
"I'm not ready to write this yet, but here goes."
"I think this is difficult because...."
















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Lawrence, A. M. (2005-2012). http://annmlawrence.wikispaces.com/WT+Memo.