Proper writing technique and listing of parent and suboridnate commands

Factual Questions
1

So, I was working on this memo, and I want to know if everyone thinks I am writing this correctly. I basically have to list out what will be installed and the amount of space each component within an equipment rack will take. This is how I had originally conceived this:

i. Twelve-port fiber patch panel which will require 1-RU.
ii. Four cable management and two whisker feed-thru trays each of which will require 1-RU.
iii. Cisco 2911 ISR which will require 2-RU.
iv. Cisco ASR 9010 which will require 21-RU.
v. Two NX-1000’s each of which will require 4-RU.
vi. Two 48-Port CAT6 Patch Panels each of which will require 2-RU.

The example I looked at was like this:

i. Fiber Media Converter tray w/two (2) media convertors- one (1) RU

Which, I found to be concerning as, if the person this is being submitted too needs help with (2) and two, then I have much bigger problems.

Second question, I also need to write out the parent and subordinate commands, so, is that like this:

Blah blah blah, COMMAND ONE, COMMAND TWO, blah blah blah
Blah blah blah, COMMAND ONE - COMMAND TWO, blah blah blah
Blah blah blah, COMMAND ONE/COMMAND TWO, blah blah blah

And, is there a book out that that would help with this, the military part? Focus is with technical writing. I thought I had one but I must have let someone borrow it. :confused:

2

I would make a table in the memo with 3 columns labeled like Item **RU each ** and Total RU and just list the correct RUs below them. If this is for a military memo, this is the correct way to do it.

Can you list the commands you want to use for the second part of your question? You don’t have to use the real unit numbers.

3

Ok, a table in the memo… I may not have ever seen that but I like that versus the insane bullets I have seen.

It’s an acquisition command, PEO EIS is the parent command, then we have DCATS, and under DCATS we have where I work, PdM WESS.

I have seen this:

PEO-EIS, DCATS, PdM WESS
PEO-EIS/DCATS/PdM WESS
PEO-EIS - DCATS - PdM WESS
PEI-EIS|DCATS|PdM WESS

And some others, you’d think someone, a GS or something, would state the uniform approach to this, since, it is a military command.

4

I don’t recognize those commands, but when I was in, it was always lowest echelon to highest, moving from left to right. For example (Air Force example):

18th ABC Squadron, 8th ABC Group, 8th ABC Wing, 18th Air Force (units made up for example).

However, some services do weird things (to me) with their units and such, so take my example with a grain of salt. I know the AF has an official guide called the Tongue and Quill that spells out things like this, maybe you can find the official one and look for the exact way it should be done.

5

This redundancy is to preclude typos or hard to read faxes / photocopies from resulting in major goofs.

It avoids 2s turning into 3s or 30s. Digits 6, 8, and 0 also get mixed up easily. As do 1 and 7.

It’s more or less the same idea as why you write out the amount in words on a check. There the concern is deliberate modifications, not inadvertent ones. But the point is the same: write the same info twice and anyone reading knows to reject or at least question any mismatches.

6

That actually makes sense. I’m sure someone based the memo that I used on a previous memo, etc. etc.