The smemo Document Type

In a bureaucratic environment a specialised document type for producing memos is no extravagance. An smemo is constructed from a head and body, with the following elements permitted in the head:

<from>

the author(s): compulsory

<to>

the recipient(s): compulsory

<subject>

the subject line: compulsory

<date>

an explicit date. If omitted the formatter will use the current date whenever the document is processed.

<cc>

carbon copy recipient(s)

<through>

explicit routing through the chain-of-command

<docnum>

probably the name of the file

<actionby>

an attempt to make something happen (usually in vain)

<x-header>

an "extension" header, which does not fit any of the above. You use it by giving the header title, a colon, and the header text, for example:

<x-header>Suggested Calling-Off Period: 24hrs

Many of the elements (`<from> <to> <cc> <through> <x-header>') may contain multiple lines, separated by semicolons.

Most of the lines may contain embedded short quotations or highlighted phrases, which are described in section Short Quotations and section Highlighted Phrases respectively. Exceptions are `<date>, <docnum>' and `<actionby>'.

The head of the memo is terminated by a blank line.

At the end of the memo two additional elements can be used:

<closing>

"Yours Faithfully," or whatever.

<signed>

A name, which is often printed following a gap for a signature. Several lines can be given, separated with semicolons. Embedded highlighted phases and short quotations can be included.