New Gov Office understands that the way we communicate affects the way we think, and the way we think defines how human organizations work. For example, “idea persons” are better suited for leadership positions than “people persons,” despite the pop culture mythology surrounding people skills and the natural inclination for the socially gifted to rise in the pecking order.

Key to communication are communication standards, agreed-upon rules that foster precision and efficiency. This is why we discuss not only management theory, but organizational communications.

One of the key items of our communications standards is the avoidance of non-English plurals, like fora for forums. These archaism sound clumsy, needlessly complicate the language, and achieve very little outside a vague pretense of education.

The common term memorandum provides a unique opportunity to avoid clumsy, non-English plurals and save space. The short-form memo is already commonplace, and should be substituted for memorandum throughout official communication, with the plural being memos.

– David Case, standards editor