Which exception covered it?
Both listeners’ pages, column two. For every unstepped tense, decide which of the three exceptions covered it — present reporting verb, still true, or immediate.
Anything none of the three covers was an error. Count those and write the number at the top.
Six pairs. Match each correct version to the one usually produced under pressure.
Two minutes of a real report
Transcribed exactly, errors and all
So the project lead says the date has not moved and the client confirmed it on Friday.
Then two people pushed back and one of them warned about not promising a date. She claimed the window was agreed in June. She told that nothing had changed since.
Somebody asked who signed it off? Nobody answered. The whole thing was badly handled.
She suggested to circulate the note tomorrow.
Four questions about the report. Two of its problems are grammar and two are not.
1. She claimed the window was agreed in June. What has the reporter added?
2. The whole thing was badly handled. Who said that?
3. Which of the four problems would cost somebody something?
4. Which of the four would a classroom normally mark?
Two lists, and one of them costs money
An honest finding. The grammar errors in a report are cheap. A missing backshift, a surviving tomorrow, a question that kept its inversion — all of these make a report slightly odd, and a reader repairs them without noticing.
The attribution errors are expensive. A loaded reporting verb accuses somebody of something nobody said. An unmarked judgement puts your opinion into the room as though a participant had voiced it. Both are grammatically flawless, and a reader acts on them.
And only the cheap list gets corrected in a classroom, because only the cheap list is visible without knowing what happened. So it is the expensive list you have to check yourself.
The cheap list
| Family | Looks like | The fix |
|---|---|---|
| No backshift | Does anything reach into now? If not, step back | |
| Time word survives | the next day | |
| Place or determiner survives | there · that · then | |
| Reported question inverted | Statement order, no auxiliary, no question mark | |
| Object pattern | told me that · explained to me | |
| Verb pattern | suggested moving · offered to circulate |
The expensive list
| Family | Looks like | The fix |
|---|---|---|
| Loaded verb | She claimed the window was agreed. | Use said unless you mean the doubt |
| Accidental accusation | He admitted the figures were checked. | Admit implies fault. Check whether there was one |
| Unmarked judgement | The whole thing was badly handled. | My own reading is that… |
| Unattributed report | Somebody said the date had moved. | Name the person, or say you do not know who |
| Absence not reported | Silence about who signed it off | She did not say who… — sometimes the finding |
The report from the input, repaired on both lists. One to five words per gap.
The project lead that the date moved, and added that the client had reconfirmed it on the Friday. Two people pushed back on the testing window, and one of them the group not to promise a date it could not hold. She that the window had been agreed in June and that nothing had changed since. She who had signed it off. Somebody asked produce the note, and nobody answered. She offered it . the whole thing was badly handled.
Eight sentences, from both lists. Fix each and mark it C for cheap or E for expensive.
1. She said she is going to resign.
2. He asked me where do I work.
3. She claimed she had sent it on Tuesday. — the reporter has no reason to doubt it
4. He told that the deadline had moved.
5. Nobody in that department knows what they are doing. — the reporter’s view
6. She said she would come tomorrow.
7. He admitted that the figures had been checked. — checking them was correct
8. She suggested to postpone it.
Checking the expensive list
Ten sentences from spoken reports. Eight need work; two are correct.
1. She said the office opens at eight, which it still does.
2. He said he will send it on Friday.
3. She insisted the figures had been checked. — nobody had questioned them
4. He explained me the whole thing twice.
5. They asked whether we had a date yet.
6. It was obvious that nobody had read the note. — the reporter’s inference
7. She warned about not to sign it.
8. He asked what time does it start.
9. Somebody said the budget was frozen. — the reporter knows who
10. She promised sending the minutes.
Four sentences have been removed from this report. Put each back where it belongs.
Sørensen opened by saying that the client had asked for a fixed date by the end of the month. [1]
Okafor said that a fixed date was not possible until the testing window was agreed. [2] Villanueva said the same thing in slightly stronger terms.
[3] Nobody in the room disagreed with that, and nobody offered a date either.
The meeting closed without an action point. [4]
One or two words per gap. Choose the verb the evidence actually supports.
She that the budget had been frozen in January, which is a matter of record. He that he had missed the deadline, which cannot have been easy to say. She that the figures were wrong, which nobody has been able to check either way. He out that the same problem had come up in November, which everybody had forgotten. And she moving the whole review to April.
Audit somebody else’s report
Task card · Pairs · Editing then speaking
Your partner’s listener page from Lesson 5, with its column three. You are their editor.
Three cheap fixes and three expensive ones, all six repaired out loud.
- Mark each one C or E before you correct it.
- For every expensive one, say what a reader would have done wrongly.
- At least one must be a reporting verb that said more than the speaker meant.
- At least one must be a judgement that needed marking as the reporter’s own.
Then, ninety seconds each. Re-report only the section where the expensive errors were. Your partner listens for one thing: can they still tell what was said from what you think?
Cheap and expensive
Four sentences. Two cheap, two expensive. Fix each and say which.
1. He said he is looking into it.
2. She asked did anybody object.
3. She claimed she had raised it in January. — she had, and there are minutes
4. The department is not fit for purpose. — the reporter’s view, in the minutes
Only one list gets marked
Three questions.
1. Which errors in a report cost somebody something?
2. Why do those go uncorrected?
3. When is claimed the honest verb?
Before next lesson. Write your meeting up in full. Then mark every sentence S for something somebody said, A for an absence, or R for your own reading.
Bring it on paper. Next lesson you cut it to 240 words and every R has to be visibly marked in the text itself.