Routine, Priority, Immediate, and Flash. You should exercise  sound  judgement  when  choosing  message precedence. Plain Language Address (PLA). PLAs identify activities  by  short  title  and  sometimes  location.  For example, the PLA address for Sea Control Squadron Twenty Two (VS-22) would be typed on a message as SEACONRON TWO TWO. Message Types Messages  are  classified  according  to  precedence, content, addressees, and format. Naval  message  drafts  should  ensure  that  the appropriate  precedence  is  assigned  to  outgoing messages. A “Routine” precedence should not be assigned  to  important  outgoing  messages  when information is of a time-sensitive or critical nature, nor should an “Immediate” precedence be assigned to an outgoing   message   that   contains   only   routine information. Message content determines whether a message is operational  or  administrative.  Operational  messages influence or deal directly with ship, troop, or aircraft movement or directly bear on safety of life, ship, forces,  intelligence  operations,  communications,  or battle plans. Operational messages also deal with information that relates to fleet readiness training exercises.  Administrative  messages  deal  primarily  with administrative matters that concern operations and readiness. Messages  types  are  also  classified  according  to addressees. There are four types of addressees as follows: General messages are GENADMIN-formatted messages     for     recurring     release     to     a predetermined  distribution  list  or  Navy-wide. This type of message is usually identified by the Book messages are messages that are destined to two or more addressees but contain addressee information that the drafter feels should not be disseminated to the other recipients. Multiple-address  messages  have  two  or  more addressees, either action or information. Single-addressee  messages  have  only  one addressee. The single addressee may be either the  action  addressee  (TO)  or  information addressee (INFO). general   message   title   of   ALCOM   (all commands), NAVOP (naval operations), or ALMILACT (all military activities). There  are  two  types  of  message  formats—narrative and pro forma. GENADMIN is the United States Message Text Format that is used for most narrative messages.  Pertinent  instructions  and  publications specify the use of other formats for narrative messages. Pro forma messages are messages with defined data fields that can be read and processed by machine. Message Preparation Naval messages are prepared in accordance with the Naval Telecommunications Procedures User‘s Manual, NTP 3. NTP 3 provides specific guidance on the preparation and transmission of naval messages. Changes to message preparation procedures occur frequently, so be sure to use the latest revision to the NTP  3.  If  in  doubt  about  message  preparation procedures,  check  with  your  local  communications office. The Message Text Format (MTF) Editor provides you   with   automated   assistance   for   drafting GENADMIN messages. MTF Editor software is menu driven and allows you to draft a formatted message by using a fill-in-the-blank template. Some fields on the template are mandatory, and other fields are optional. You should refer to the NTP 3 whenever you are unsure if a field is mandatory or optional. The following are general  guidelines  to  use  when  you  draft  a GENADMIN message: Allowable characters include A through Z (all capitalized), numerals 0 through 9, blank spaces, and some special characters. The allowable special characters are quotation marks (“ ”), periods (.), commas (,), parentheses ( ), question marks (?), hyphens and dashes (-), and, in some cases,  slants  (-/-).  Don’t  use  other  special characters because they are not available on Navy teletypewriter keyboards and will cause formatting errors. Limit abbreviations within the text of messages to  those  meanings  that  are  self-evident, unequivocal, and easily recognized. In doubtful cases, always let clarity take precedence over brevity. Use the mandatory sets (MSGID, SUBJ, and RMKS) on all GENADMIN messages. Use optional sets (REF, NARR, and so forth) as 2-16