Meetings · Plain-English guide

What does “Action items” mean?

Specific jobs agreed during a discussion, ideally with an owner and deadline.

“A meeting has produced a verb. Promising.” — Arthur

What it means in practice

An action item should describe a task, rather than a topic that was discussed. ‘Website’ tells nobody what to do; ‘Jo to check the broken booking link by Thursday’ gives people something they can follow up.

An example and a clearer version

The original wording

Please review the action items.

In plain English

Please check the agreed jobs, who is doing each one and when they are due.

What to say instead

agreed jobs.

How to make the next step clear

Record the action, the person responsible and the agreed deadline. Check that the person accepts the task. If no deadline has been agreed, mark it as needing agreement rather than quietly adding one.

Wording you can adapt

Jo will check the booking link by Thursday and tell the team what needs fixing.

The wording around a phrase matters. Keep the names, dates, amounts and conditions from the original when you rewrite it.

Try “Action items” with Arthur →