Twenty reports, three seconds each
Round the room. Your teacher reads a line of direct speech; the next person reports it within three seconds, with the tense, the pronouns and the time words all moved.
Every fifth one is a question. Twice round.
Eight items. Match each to the rule it demonstrates.
The page is not the briefing
In the report
My own reading, which nobody said in the room: the June agreement probably exists and probably does not say what Okafor thinks it says.
Out loud, briefing somebody
Right — and this next bit is me, not the meeting. Nobody said this. I think the June note exists. I also think that when it turns up it will not say what she thinks it says, and that is a guess, but it is the thing I would plan for.
Three questions comparing the two.
1. The spoken version marks the shift twice — this is me and nobody said this. Why twice?
2. and that is a guess — why say it, when the whole passage is already marked as a guess?
3. Which version should you give today?
Marking the boundary out loud
What the page does, and how speech does it instead
| On the page | Out loud | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A separate paragraph for the reading | Right — this next bit is me, not the meeting. | A listener cannot see a break |
| She did not say who… | And nobody said who. I did ask. | An absence needs stating twice to register |
| An action point with a name and a date | One action point. Okafor. Friday. | Fragments land; a full sentence buries it |
| A neutral reporting verb | An unstressed one, said fast | Stressing said introduces doubt you did not write |
Six moves. Put them into the order somebody who has to act needs them.
The unit task, in three parts
Task card · Part one · Hand in · 4 minutes
Your clean meeting report goes into your portfolio today.
A final check against five things, then hand it over.
- About 240 words, with a header and a word count.
- A name on every reported statement.
- At least one absence and one non-decision, reported as such.
- Action points in their own paragraph, each with a name and a date.
- Your reading in exactly one paragraph, announcing itself in its first few words.
Task card · Part two · The briefing · 5 minutes each
A new partner who has not read your report and has to act on what you say. Your page stays face down.
Five minutes, in the six moves, with the boundary between report and reading audible.
- Outcome first, in one sentence.
- Names on everything. Backshift throughout, unless one of the three exceptions applies.
- At least three reported questions or requests.
- Mark your reading out loud, twice, at the point where it starts.
- Close on the action point: name, thing, date.
Listener’s job, and it is assessed too. After every claim you are unsure about, interrupt with who said that? Then keep three columns:
1. Every reporting verb, marked neutral or loaded.
2. Every unstepped tense, and whether an exception covered it.
3. Every time you had to ask who said that?
Column three is the score that matters.
Task card · Part three · The comparison · 5 minutes
You now have a marked written report and a listener’s page from a spoken briefing of the same meeting.
One sentence about the gap.
- Count the unmarked judgements in the writing. Count the who said that? interruptions.
- They are almost never the same number. Which is higher?
- Look at column one: did you use more loaded verbs speaking than writing?
- Write one sentence: On paper I mark ___ ; out loud I ___ , which leaves a listener ___ .
Closing the unit
Eight errors, one from each lesson. Fix each and name the lesson.
1. She said she is not coming.
2. She claimed she had raised it in January. — she had, and there are minutes
3. He said he will call me tomorrow.
4. She asked did I send it.
5. He told that the deadline had moved.
6. She suggested to postpone it.
7. The whole thing was badly handled. — the reporter’s view
8. Action point: send the note.
One final report paragraph. One to five words per gap.
Lindqvist that the shift change agreed in February and whether the night staff had been consulted. Reis that they had been, but when. Lindqvist on seeing the consultation record, and Reis to send it by the Friday. the record will show two meetings and no night staff at either of them.
What this unit was about
Four questions covering the whole unit.
1. What is the one question that decides whether to backshift?
2. "Did you send it?" She asked ___
3. Which errors in a report cost somebody something?
4. Why do those go uncorrected in a classroom?
The unit in one line. Backshift has three real exceptions, and meeting all three in authentic English without being told where the line is, is why the rule never quite stuck. The line is one question: does anything here reach into now?
And the reporting verb is an editorial act. Said, claimed and explained are three different reports of identical words, and choosing between them is the main professional skill in writing a report at all.
Next unit. You have reported what other people said. Next you describe the people themselves — the relative clauses that let you say who somebody is inside one sentence instead of three, which is what every one of these reports has been quietly leaning on.
Keep the sentence you wrote in part three. The gap between what your layout enforces and what you enforce yourself is worth carrying into every written thing you produce.