Meeting Minutes

When writing meeting minutes or a summary after a meeting, it is crucial to report key facts and who was involved.  In order to do this, we often use reporting verbs to talk about what happened during the meeting; the most common ones are ‘said’ and ‘told’. However, if we constantly use these verbs in a summary of a meeting, it gets repetitive and boring for the reader. Take a look at Jill’s meeting minutes below, do you notice these verbs repeating? Are you engaged as a reader?

App Launch- Item 2

Jack said the new features on the intranet were a good idea and he supported them.

Emily told the board the deadline for launch was around the end of September.

Mischa said his team couldn’t meet the deadline and would like an extension- end of October.

Emily said it was important to launch end of September because the CEO’s annual speech was happening then.

Jack told the team in detail why he also needs an extension- many of his team members on holiday in August.

As you can see Jill’s minutes could use some engaging reporting verbs in order to sound less repetitive and more reader friendly.  Below you have some definitions of some reporting verbs, try to match them to the correct verb:

1. Briefly talk about something

 
 
 
 
 

2. Support or approve something

 
 
 
 
 

3. Share opinions

 
 
 
 
 

4. Make someone notice/ focus on something

 
 
 
 
 

5. Highlight something

 
 
 
 
 

Refresh this page to try the quiz again

Look back at Jill’s meeting minutes, how would you change the text using some of the reporting verbs seen?

 

Example Meeting minutes

App Launch- Item 2

Jack mentioned that the new features on the intranet were a good idea and he supported them.

Emily pointed out that the deadline for launch was around the end of September.

Mischa drew attention to the fact that his team couldn’t meet the deadline and would like an extension- end of October.

Emily said it was important to launch end of September because the CEO’s annual speech was happening then.

Jack told the team in detail why he also needs an extension- many of his team members are on holiday in August.

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