BEP 136 – Meetings: Making a Progress Report

In this Business English Pod episode we’re going to look at making a project progress report during a meeting.

All managers need written progress reports from their staff, but it is often necessary to make a verbal progress report during a meeting. A verbal report can be thought of as a combination of a presentation and a question and answer session.

When making a progress report, you’ll need to start with the overall status of the project, and then go on to explain how much of the work has been completed, at what stage the work is now, what remains to be done and, of course, what problems might have arisen. Because the format is “live”, people may interrupt to ask questions or make comments and you should be sure of your facts when you go into the meeting.

We’ll be listening to Angela, who works in the Operations department of her company. Blaine & Co. They plan to move to a new head office and the renovation, or preparation, of their space is currently underway. Angela has visited the new office and spoken with the key people on-site. As the dialog starts, she is called upon to give a verbal report on the progress of the renovation.

Listening Questions

1) What did Angela do to prepare for this meeting?
2) Will Blaine & Co. be able to move as planned?
3) Where will Blaine & Co. get money to cover the extra costs?

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BVP 04 Vocabulary – Discussing a Project in English

When you think of projects, what comes to mind? You might think of something quite complicated and extensive, like the new office project we’ll be hearing about today. But in fact, most of the tasks we do in business are part of a project. Even something as simple as writing a proposal is a project in itself: First you collect data, then you analyze and evaluate the data before writing a draft. Finally, you edit the draft proposal and present a final version to the decision-makers. So knowing how to refer to different elements of a project and describe them with interesting collocations is important for practically everyone involved in business today.

Following on from our two video podcasts on basic vocabulary for project management (VV 07 & VV 08), today we’re going to listen in to a briefing by Kerri, the manager of a direct marketing company, and Martina, a member of her staff. We’ll be focusing on collocations useful for describing a project and its execution.

Listening Questions:

1) What does Kerri want Martina to do for the company?
2) How much time will Martina have to complete this project?
3) What does Kerri promise to do to make Martina’s work easier?

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VV 08 – Project Management Vocabulary (Part 2)

YouTube video

Video Vocab is a series of short videos explaining the meaning of important business terms related to many of the topics that are part of every day business conversations.

We continue our look at the vocabulary related to project management by looking at the words used to describe a project timeline. First we’ll hear a short article introducing the topic and then we’ll go though each word in detail with some example sentences to show how you can use the words. At the end of the video you’ll have a chance to review practice your new vocabulary.

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