IV. Structuring minutes

Read the first paragraph of the text about minutes. Think about the heading to

this paragraph. Then answer the questions that follow.

1)Is it necessary to structure the minutes? Why? Why not?

2) What can happen with very complicated and confused minutes?

3) Are there any differences in style and words between writing and

speaking?

4)Do we write as we speak?

5) Why isn’t advisable to take the quotations out of the context?

(1) __________________

1.Structuring your minutes is an essential part of creating a document that is both easy to read and act upon. If the minutes are too complicated or confused, they will be consigned to the pile of ‘things to read later on’ and there they will stay. As a meeting attendee, a badly done and confused set of minutes would be the perfect excuse for why I haven’t undertaken the actions requested of me.

Structuring is also important because it helps with the ease of reading and researching later on – for example, if you are trying to find out why a decision wasn’t made.

Start by considering speech. The way in which people speak is not how speech is reported. This means that imposing a structure may mean that we have to adjust our presentation to knit the two aspects together – the words said, and the manner in which we want to present the material.

In the meeting everyone is interacting and people often follow on from each other without restating the facts. In other words, comments are given in relation to other comments. For example:

Person A: “I think we should talk to Paula about this…”

Person B: “Yes, she is the right person.”

Person C: “What about Ben? He is very knowledgeable.”

Person A: “Yeah, Ben then, Ben it is! ”

You can see that all this makes sense only if you were to read all the speech and even

then only if you understand the context. The last comment means nothing on its own and relates only to the comments before it. That’s why you should never take the quotations out of the context. In the meeting it would be easy to follow this conversation and understand what the people are talking about, but when you are writing minutes you are writing them for an audience, and therefore they need to be given a context and a sense of flow that may not actually been present during the discussion.

Read the second paragraph. Tnink about the heading for this paragraph. Then ask

colleagues three question about the paragraph.

1……………………………………………………………………………

2. …………………………………………………………………………..

3. ………………………………………………………………………….

(2) ______________________

2 When we speak, we not only use words but we also communicate by:

.> non-verbal means – for example nods of the head

.> noises or interjections such as ‘um’, ‘er’, or ‘ah! ’

.> nonsensical speech – ‘Do you? ’ or ‘Never! ’

> unfinished sentences – ‘I thought I might… no, don’t worry.’

We may start a sentence speaking to one person and then finish it speaking to another. This would not make sense if written down and that is why speech is written not in the way we use it in everyday life but in a more formal style so that we can follow who is saying what and keep track of the story.

Minutes are there to give an overview of the meeting with any important points included or, in some instances, highlighted. You are writing for an audience and it has to be understood by people who were not even present.

If we were to minute the conversation quoted earlier, we would write:

Item 12 – New office design

There was some discussion regarding who would be

best placed to advise on the design of a new office. Action: A to

It was agreed that at this stage Ben was the most contact Ben

appropriate person to comment.

Minutes should be professional. Many minutes become documents that are viewed by other organizations or the public, and therefore the tone you set, as a minute taker, will be judged by all. Minutes should be written in the third person and in the past tense. What this means is that the minute taker is writing like a narrator telling a story about something that happened yesterday.

3. Study the following example.

Read through the following conversation between three people:

Person 1: ‘I think we need somewhere else to hold these meetings.’

Person 2: ‘Yes, it is becoming more difficult to get access to this room

as more businesses are moving into the building.’

Person 1: ‘It was OK when it was just us and TJ Holdings. They hardly used the

room at all and did not appear to have meetings; now two more

Person 3: ‘What do these companies do? ’

Person 2: ‘One is a firm of solicitors and the other is a firm of accountants, and they