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I've heard people use consistent phrases like "the big move covers the small move" and "create an offbeat". Does this mean there is a classic treatise on misdirection which I'm missing?

It's actually called study... there's no treatise, it's knowledge you'll pick up as you further your studies by the OLD SCHOOL masters

That's one helluva big hint!

The reason I asked the question in such a way was the consistency in phrase, which implied a written source.

It's probably a traditional truism, but it's a very powerful one. It's the sort of thing that the classic texts teach but probably don';t put so simply. The number of times I've deliberately covered my mouth and coughed (and peeked) I shudder to think!

You're a software engineer, aren't you? I suspect it's the same type of thing as "never debug the comments".

The idea of a big move covering a small move is something that's often mentioned as being a Vernon-ism. I don't know if it originated with him as such or if it's that resonates with people. I'm guessing Seige was alluding to Vernon, in which case I've just blown the subtlety. Sorry Seige.
I don't know where 'offbeat' in the context of magical misdirection comes from.
Some of the best work on misdirection I've seen has come from pickpocketing videos. James Brown's DVD is rather good too. Everyone should read Vernon's books anyway, but for me this is one area where you can't beat seeing it done to get a sense of the timing and dynamics.

A lot of this is covered by the elegant theory of “In-Transit Actions” formulated by Arturo Ascanio in the VOL 2 of the book “Studies Of Card Magic” (forewords by Roberto Giobbi and Aurelio Paviato)

I dont like the term miss-direction. I perfer to call it drawn attention , to pull the spectators away from what i am up to and have them focus where i want them.

I think a good way to practice like any "move" all though it is not a move is to do it when you dont really have to. As said above there is no classic work on this stuff, but many books do point you in the way of course Mark Wilsons complete course dose if you read the section on some of the coin vanishies and the likes where to draw foucs with your eyes etc. All Jeff Mcbrides art of card manipulation has some stuff on it. When doing card manips some times both hands have to do the "dirty" work.

That line in my sig is an actuall quote from me when i was at a mates wedding and some of his army pals was watching some stuff, I said to one "Now jsut look over there for a second" that was a great laugh.

Others have said that the term mis-direction is wrong and it should properly be called direction as you direct the attention where you want it be be which is well away from any funny biz going on. I guess you can call it whatever you want as long as it works for you.

Misdirection is and should be a natural gesture.

Equate it logically to channelling attention to where the action isn't.

Misdirection can be physical, verbal or even psychological.

Examples are:

Physical
>> Gaining eye contact
>> Bringing an alien object into play
>> Giving the spectator something to do
>> Changing one's posture
>> Overting your gaze and making them follow

Verbal
>> Re-capping what's already happened
>> Information overload
>> 'Throwing' attention by digression

Psychological
The psychological aspect is covered above... for instance, asking the spectator to do something, such as sign their name on a card, or count the cards. Whilst they THINK one thing is happening, you're actually doing something else.

There's also a lot of psychological misdirection in some forces, particularly in mentalism, wherby the spectator's attention can be focussed so intently that you can get away with blue murder whilst they THINK they're concentrating on an integral aspect of an effect, where in reality you're simply causing them to FORGET or IGNORE what is actually occuring.

By studying various magician's methods, you can find your own methods which suit your character.

I've recently been studying Vernon, Mullica and Lennart Green, and they all exhibit what appears as natural misdirection—but each of them has their own distinct methods.

However, the theory behind all the methods used is a constant, and most misdirection is purely performance based. Only by experience will you gain the knowledge to realise how spectators react to certain 'prompts'. It's these prompts which give the moment of misdirection, and it's within these moments that you perform your dirty work.

For instance, whilst performing recently for a group of friends, I found great misdirection in the fact that one of my shirt collars had a drip of red wine on it. Purely circumstantial, but when I asked 'Please, stop staring at my wine stain!' I managed to gain eye contact for a long enough period to perform a classic pass totally unnoticed.

A small example, I know, but only through study and performance in real situations will you gain confidence and learn the ways in which you can throw attention long enough to get whatever preparations or work you need done.

Sometimes it's a split second, but more often than not, that's enough.

Oh, and I've just thought...
One or many...
Some forms of misdirection work most excellently in one-on-one situations, but not with 1+ spectators. Similarly, when dealing with more than one spectators, there are other things to think about, such as people to the sides or people behind.

In certain cases, it's necessary to forfeit the satisfaction of getting a 'catch-all' misdirection. You can't please all the people, all the time.

A classic example of this just occured to me whilst watching Mullica's excellent Cigarette Magic DVD. He does a routine whereby using a simple misdirection, the audience to his LEFT are privvy to the gaff, whilst those to his RIGHT see a wonderful trick.

This situation is turned wonderfully to a comic routine... and although you may say 'well, isn't he exposing the method to the crowd on his left?', the overall final effect is a double-whammy—both a great trick AND a comedy gag.

Mass misdirection follows very much similar rules to the rest, but you should always be prepared to be versatile enough to adapt to a situation.

Stage magic vs parlour or closeup, for example... with stage magic, your audience is always in the same place, and misdirection needs to be done on a massive scale.

With closeup magic, you're more intimately involved with your audience, and should use this close relationship to develop your own key moments.

I always find a moment of comedy is a fantastic way to clean up—ditching a TT for example is an important move which requires misdirection—and more often than not, after a bill switch routine or other routine which involves a TT, I do an almost cheeky little ditch up my sleeves by misdirecting the audience's attention to the act of me showing inside my sleeves.

Yeah, corny I guess. But the misdirection is just so natural.

Spectator management and selection is another key point... if you at all suspect that someone is purposely trying to catch you out and burn what you're doing, DO NOT try and get fancy with your sleights or misdirections... I've also had occasion where no matter WHAT I said or did, spectators will watch intently your hands and not overt their gaze for a moment.

This is a horrible and uncomfortable situation which is easily avoided.

And another reason why when performing, try and make your repertoire slightly flexible so that you can substitute effects and still maintain the flow.

There's nothing worse than being 'caught out' early on in a performance, as it totally wrecks your psyche—unless you're a hardened pro!

Misdirection, for me, is possibly the most fundamental lesson which you learn when first performing to 'live' subjects.

Some masters of misdirection, take a look at their work...
Bill Malone
Lennart Green
Slydini
Vernon
Mullica
Al Schneider
Jim Pace
Greg Wilson
Gary Kurtz
Juan Tamariz

A Jean Hugard quote...
"The principle of misdirection plays such an important role in magic that one might say that Magic is misdirection and misdirection is Magic"

Further reading
Conjuring Psychology, Richard Weibel
Strong Magic, Darwin Ortiz
Don't look now!, Al Leech
Magic by Misdirection, Dariel Fitzkee

From what i have learnt, it is always a good idea when you are performing a 'move' with one hand, to look at the other instead. This is because the spectator will look the same way that you do, so you should always look away from where you dont want anybody to look.

Seige, that was most excellent. Thanks for the clear pointers.

That's a brilliant post seige! I might have to print that out

I find the eye contact is the bast way to keep the specs eyes off what your doing. It very difficult to break eye contact when someones talking to you.

...the spec will look where you look...

http://www.martinbreese.com/thoughts1.htm

I quickly learnt that misdirection is one of the most important aspects of a performance along with patter.

I had all my tricks practiced perfectly but with out the misdirection it was worth nothing.

I like to keep the spec talking, keep thier eyes away from what you're doing but at the same time don't make it obvious that's what you're doing. That's when I find, good patter comes in. Talk to them and tell them a story, they'll be much more interested in what you're saying than what you're doing.

Another very good and very natural seeming method I use is to get the spec to sign a card and show it to their friends. That gives you perfect oppotunity to do a couple of dodgey cuts or what ever it is you need to do.

Perhaps ask them to inspect the cards, coin, balls or what ever you're using. Anything that can get them concentrating on something other than your hands.