Abigail Ureña
Self-Reflection for Memo

Writing this memo was an odd task for me. It was a weird transition from the other types of writing that I had done before. Before writing the memo, I made myself a detailed outline on what topics I would discuss, and many important items that my memo should include. At first I struggled on how I should approach writing this memo, because I did not want it to sound as if I were complaining, and I did not want my writing to seem rude or threatening. I spent a long time thinking of possible solutions for the problems that I had mentioned in my memo.
One of the most important tasks I had on this assignment was effectively communicating with my audience. I had to include language that would be relevant to my audience, and I had to mention experiences that could relate with my audience. I did this to keep the audience intrigued so they could keep reading and retain the information that I talked about, and work on the problems I discussed. I also focused on how this problem affects students and faculty daily. I included some information to help persuade him that fixing the escalators and elevators in NAC would help the student body tremendously. I think these rhetorical practices were effective because I presented them in a way that was easy for the reader, and provided them with enough information to enact change and try to solve the issue with the elevators and escalators.
My purpose for writing the memo was to inform Dr. Vincent Boudreau of the massive problem with unreliable escalators and elevators located in the NAC building, and to discuss and offer viable solutions to remedy this problem. I think my purpose was summed up enough yet it provided the reader with enough information to know what the memo was going to be about. The genre I used was a memo, because the assignment was to write a memo, I did not have a choice in the genre. However, to me this is the most appropriate genre to approach the president of the college with. If I were to actually reach out to Dr. Boudreau, I would have to contact him through this manner, so I believe this genre would be the most effective in getting my audience to respond to the issues I had mentioned.
Some of the most important writing decisions I made when writing this memo, were mostly what language and jargon I should use. I tried my best to not to seem like I was nagging when writing the memo, yet I did not want to sound harsh. The vocabulary I used is extremely important to the way in which the audience will receive the memo. I decided to include recommendations that were very cost effective because I think it will have a higher chance of being completed. I made these decisions with the context of having a low budget. If large amounts of money would not be available to them to renovate the elevators and escalators, at least they would have some options of what they could do to temporarily mediate the problem.
What I could have improved on in my memo were some of the writing choices. In some instances I could have used more sophisticated vocabulary. I also could have offered some solutions that are more expensive so that they would have a larger option of solutions to choose from. For this being the first memo I have ever written, I think it was effective, and allowed the audience to understand my message. For future memos that I write, I will use the knowledge I earned from writing this one, and hopefully they will be even better.