Where is the briefing?
Unit 02
Workplace communication
Professional email and shift handover
Write concise professional messages, ask indirect questions, and transfer pending work without ambiguity.
WritingListeningUse of English
Frontex focus
Integrated border-management coordination
01
Learning outcomes
By the end of this unit
- Choose an appropriate level of formality.
- Form polite indirect questions with statement word order.
- Give a structured handover with actions and deadlines.
02
Communication model
A handover that can be acted on
A useful handover is shorter than a full report but more precise than an informal update. It identifies what happened, what remains pending, who owns the next action, and when the matter must be reviewed. Neutral wording helps the next shift understand the situation without inheriting assumptions.
In multinational work, unexplained abbreviations create avoidable risk. Use an acronym after writing its full form once, unless the audience already shares the terminology. If a request is urgent, state the deadline and reason instead of using capital letters or emotional language.
Read further: The message that survives a change of shift
First, identify the writer’s main purpose. Then look for evidence, qualifications, and links between paragraphs.
The afternoon team at a coordination office used to receive a long email at the end of every morning shift. It contained useful information, but completed tasks, unresolved questions and background comments appeared in the order the writer remembered them. A colleague reading quickly could easily mistake the latest comment for the current status. The office therefore tried a different structure for two weeks, asking writers to separate completed work from actions that still required an owner or a reply.
During the trial, one entry concerned a replacement radio. The morning team had checked the faulty item and submitted a request, but the replacement had not yet been approved. An early draft described the matter as “dealt with”. The outgoing officer meant that the request had been sent; the incoming officer understood that a working radio would be available. Neither person had deliberately withheld information. The phrase simply compressed two distinct stages into an apparently reassuring conclusion.
The team rewrote the entry to identify what had happened, what remained open and who would follow it up. It also included a time for the next update, rather than inventing a delivery time that nobody could confirm. This last distinction mattered: an update can be promised by the person responsible for sending it, while an external delivery may depend on decisions outside that person’s control. The revised message was slightly longer, but required fewer clarification calls.
At the end of the trial, staff chose to keep the new headings while allowing short background notes where a decision needed context. They did not introduce a rigid word limit. Their test was whether a colleague arriving without the morning conversation could identify the next action. If the answer was unclear, the writer revised the message before leaving. Concision remained a goal, but saving a few words was no longer treated as success when those words carried essential responsibility.
03
Language focus
Indirect questions and email register
After an introductory phrase, use statement word order. Professional messages state purpose, required action, owner, and deadline.
Could you confirm where the briefing is?
Please review the attached log by 15:00 and confirm completion.
Watch this
Do not write Could you confirm where is the briefing? after an indirect-question opener.
Use the language
Complete the second sentence.
Keep the original meaning. Use each keyword unchanged. Type only the missing words in the blue gap.
- 1Read the original
- 2Fill the blue gap
- 3Check your answer
How to answer · worked example
Original
This is Jo’s laptop.
Use BELONGS
This laptop belongs to Jo.
Only belongs to goes in the gap. The other words are already there.
3 short exercises · not saved · separate from your drill score.
01 of 03Use WHERE
Original sentence
Where is the revised log?
Same meaning
Could you confirm
?
or press Enter
Your completed sentence
Show hint
An indirect question uses statement word order.
Compare with a model answer
Words for the gap where the revised log is
Could you confirm where the revised log is?
Where the revised log is follows the polite opener without subject–verb inversion.
02 of 03Use RECEIVING
Original sentence
Please send the reference before noon.
Same meaning
I would appreciate
before noon.
or press Enter
Your completed sentence
Show hint
Would appreciate takes an -ing phrase.
Compare with a model answer
Words for the gap receiving the reference
I would appreciate receiving the reference before noon.
Receiving the reference correctly expresses the requested action after appreciate.
03 of 03Use AFTER
Original sentence
The coordinator sent the message only when the figures had been checked.
Same meaning
Grammar reminder: Inversion after only
When an opening only phrase restricts a past action, invert the auxiliary and subject in the main clause. Use did + subject + base verb for the past simple.
Example: Only after the figures had been checked did the coordinator send the message.
Only
send the message.
or press Enter
Your completed sentence
Show hint
The only phrase comes first. Put did before the main-clause subject.
Compare with a model answer
Words for the gap after the figures had been checked did the coordinator
Only after the figures had been checked did the coordinator send the message.
The checking still precedes sending. Did the coordinator send preserves the past simple after the restrictive opening.
The checker matches model answers. An unmatched answer may still be valid; compare the completed sentences and explanation.
04
Core lexicon
Professional and operational vocabulary
transfer of responsibility and information to the next person or team
The night shift left a detailed handover.waiting to be completed or decided
Two identity checks are still pending.take further action after an earlier step
Please follow up with the document expert.confirm that a message or file has arrived
Kindly acknowledge receipt of the revised plan.person accountable for completing a stated action
Every handover item needs an action owner.From EPSOHQ Frontex database
Acronym focus
Useful when describing coordinated EU and national border-management work.
05
Listening workshop
Prepare. Listen. Respond.
Before you listen
Listen first for what is complete and what remains open; then catch the owner and deadline.
- pending
- waiting for an action or decision
- reference number
- an identifier used to find a particular record
- outstanding work
- tasks that have not yet been finished
Operational briefing
Listen once for the overall message. Replay for details, then explain the speaker’s reasoning. Pause, seek, or slow the recording whenever useful.
Unlimited replays · 01:22
Read transcript
This is the handover for the afternoon shift. The equipment check is complete. One report still needs the reference number from the duty office. Mina will obtain that number by fifteen hundred. Please keep the report open until it has been added, then send the completed log to the shift leader.
There is also a change to the way we pass on outstanding work. We used to send a short message saying that a file was almost finished. That description caused confusion because the receiving officer could not tell whether a decision, a signature, or a simple administrative detail was missing. From this afternoon, every handover should distinguish the work already completed from the action still required. Name the person who owns that action and give the time at which an update is expected.
If the expected update does not arrive, the receiving team should contact the named owner before escalating the matter. This does not mean waiting indefinitely. Where a delay could affect another team's work, inform that team early and explain what remains uncertain. Please avoid copying an entire distribution list simply to show that a message was sent. A handover succeeds when the next person understands what to do, not when the largest possible number of people receive the email. Before leaving, ask the receiving officer to summarise the outstanding action in their own words.
Original EPSOHQ text. Synthetic narration with macOS Daniel or Samantha voice.
Check your understanding
Drill 5 · Listening for action Drill 14 · Listening comprehension Drill 15 · Listening comprehension Drill 16 · Listening inference Drill 17 · Listening inference
Use what you heard
Give a four-part handover: completed action, pending item, owner, next update time.
06
Production task
Write a four-line handover
Report one completed action, one pending issue, the action owner, and the next deadline.
- Use a neutral subject line.
- Write one action per sentence.
- End with a clear confirmation request.
About 12 minutes · 80–130 words
Open evaluated task
Try your own response first. Then compare how the example covers the task, connects ideas, and uses the target language.
Study an example response
Illustrative response, not an assessed script
Subject: Afternoon handover — equipment report
The morning equipment check is complete, and I have attached the verified list of available radios for your reference.
One incident report remains open because its duty-office reference is missing; Mina owns this action and will obtain the number by 15:00 today.
Once the reference has been added, the afternoon shift leader should review the completed entry before the log is circulated to the coordination team.
Could you confirm that you have received this handover and that Mina’s pending action appears on the afternoon action list?
Notice the choices
- The subject identifies the handover without adding an unsupported priority label.
- Completed work and the pending reference appear in separate action sentences.
- Mina owns the next step, by 15:00 gives its deadline, and the final line requests confirmation.
Adapt these patterns to your own situation. For speaking, practise aloud and check clarity and pace; a written example cannot demonstrate pronunciation or spontaneous fluency.