Who was in the room
Say only the participants and the outcome of your conversation. Your partner guesses what the disagreement was about.
If they cannot, the outcome is not specific enough to report yet.
Six phrases for organising a report. Match each to what it does.
Where the extra minutes come from
The same meeting at ninety seconds and at four
Ninety seconds: The launch date has not moved. Two people said the testing window is too short. The project lead said it was agreed in June. She is going to circulate the note.
Four minutes adds: who said what, by name; the exact objection, in the objector’s framing rather than the writer’s; what the project lead did not say, which is who signed the June note off; a reported question nobody answered; one place where the writer’s judgement is marked as their own and not attributed to anybody; the action point with a name and a date on it; and the thing that will happen if the note does not appear.
Four questions about the list of additions.
1. How many of the seven additions are new events?
2. One addition is what somebody did not say. Why report an absence?
3. One addition marks the writer’s judgement as their own. What would happen without that mark?
4. Why report the objection in the objector’s framing rather than your own?
Six ways to make a minute
Where the extra time comes from
| Add | Question | Form it wants |
|---|---|---|
| A name | Who actually said this? | Reporting verb + name |
| The exact objection | How did they put it? | Their framing, backshifted |
| An absence | What did nobody say? | She did not say who… |
| An unanswered question | What was asked and left hanging? | He asked whether…, and nobody answered. |
| Your reading, marked | What do you think, as distinct from what was said? | That is my reading, not what she said. |
| An action point | Who does what, by when? | She offered to circulate it by Tuesday. |
Six moves of a spoken report. Put them into the order a busy listener needs.
Build the four minutes
Task card · Planning · Individual · 6 minutes
Four minutes from a page of notes. Names and phrases only — a written sentence gets read aloud.
A page with six headings and three or four words under each.
- The outcome, in one clause.
- Who was there, by name or role.
- The disagreement, and the objector’s exact words as far as you remember them.
- One thing nobody said, or one question nobody answered.
- One judgement of your own, and how you will mark it as yours.
- The action point: who, what, by when.
One to four words per gap. Reporting verbs, backshift, and one reported question.
The project lead that the date moved and that the client had reconfirmed it on the Friday. Two people on the testing window; one of them the group not to promise a date it could not hold. She that the window agreed in June. Somebody who had signed it off, and nobody answered.
Four minutes, twice
Task card · Speaking · Round one · 4 minutes each
Your partner was not at the meeting and has to act on what you tell them. Notes on the table; six headings only.
Four minutes, in the six moves.
- Outcome first, in one sentence.
- Names on everything. No somebody said unless you genuinely do not know.
- The objection in the objector’s framing, not yours.
- One absence and one unanswered question.
- Mark your own reading as yours. Close with the action point, with a name and a date.
Listener’s job. Three columns:
1. Every reporting verb, with a mark for whether it was neutral or loaded.
2. Every place a tense did not step back, and whether one of the three exceptions applied.
3. Anything you could not tell apart — was it said, or is it the reporter’s reading?
Column three is the one that matters. Anything in it is a report you could act wrongly on.
Between the rounds — three minutes, silent. Read column three. Every item in it needs a mark in round two: either attributed to somebody, or named as yours.
Then look at column one. If you used a loaded verb where a neutral one would do, decide whether you meant it.
Task card · Speaking · Round two · New partner · 4 minutes
Same meeting, new listener, same clock, notes face down.
Four minutes with everything in column three now clearly marked.
- No notes. You know the meeting.
- Everything your first listener could not place is now either attributed or marked as your reading.
- Your new listener keeps the same three columns.
- Compare the two pages. Column three should be nearly empty.
What could not be placed
Five sentences from round one. Fix each.
1. She said the window is too short.
2. Somebody asked did anybody sign it off.
3. He told that he had forgotten.
4. The whole thing was badly handled. — the reporter’s view, unmarked
5. She suggested to circulate the note.
Said or thought?
Two questions about your own two rounds.
1. Your listener could not place four sentences. What is the risk?
2. You ran out at three minutes. What is the fix?
Before next lesson. Keep both listeners’ pages. Count column two — the unstepped tenses — and mark which of them one of the three exceptions actually covered.
Next lesson is built out of exactly that, and out of the reporting verbs that said more than you meant.