When writing your OET letters, there are a number of considerations that you should keep in mind in order to ensure that you score as high as possible. There are grammatical considerations, organizational considerations, spelling, formality and more can be prepared at the best OET online coaching in Punjab.
We spent a lot of time correcting the answers to the OET handwriting and there are a number of mistakes that we have seen time and time again that with a little more awareness and care could be easily avoided. .
Therefore, in this article we will focus on some of these mistakes and provide some tips that will most likely help you improve your writing. Here are the 3 common mistakes in writing OET and how to avoid them with the help of OET online training in Mohali:
1. Punctuate your first paragraph:
The first paragraph, as I’m sure many of you know, should focus directly and immediately on why your letter is being written. For example, you write to a surgeon because of a worsening case of arthritis. The mistake I often see here, however, is with the punctuation. Consider the following answer, what is the punctuation error?
I am writing to refer the patient mentioned above who is suffering from worsening osteoarthritis for possible knee replacement.
Did you understand? To answer the question, you must first recognize the fact that this sentence contains a lot of information, so much so that we need punctuation to establish which part is the main subject of the sentence and which part is additional, although important, information. We can establish this through the use of commas, like this:
I am writing to refer the patient mentioned above, who is suffering from worsening osteoarthritis, for possible knee replacement.
You can now see that the information highlighted between commas is the extra part of the sentence. It could be deleted and the sentence would still make sense and contain its main idea, just missing the extra information that using commas allows us to provide. Another way by best OET online course for nurses is the sentence could have been written is as follows:
I am writing to refer the patient mentioned above for possible knee joint replacement. She suffers from worsening osteoarthritis.
These two sentences would be grammatically correct but they have the disadvantage of requiring two sentences to say what is possible to say in one. So, by using our commas correctly, we can tie ideas together while maintaining clarity.
2. Errors using small numbers:
Another common mistake in OET writing tips comes from using small numbers. Let’s take another example, let’s see if this time you can spot two errors:
The patient presented with a history of migraines lasting 2 weeks
How did we do it? Well, the first and most obvious mistake here is the use of the number “2” rather than the word “two”. In formal writing, we have to use words rather than numbers when the numbers are small, so basically any number from one to ninety-nine should be written as a word. Numbers 100 and over can be written as a number.
This is a convention that you should follow in your advice for writing letters. The second error comes from using “weeks” rather than what it should be: “week”. Indeed, “two weeks” should be linked as an adjectival expression rather than being considered as two separate words.
As an adjectival phrase, their function is to qualify the noun “story” and when a number is used as an adjective, it must be directly related to the adjective that follows. Since “week” is also an adjective in this sentence, it does not have to be plural; so our sentence should look like this:
The patient presented with a two-week history of migraines.
The small number has now been correctly spelled as a word and it has been linked to the following adjective.
3. Include medical history too early:
This is a common mistake that I see. According to the advice of the OET writing guidelines, your letters should be structured to include the most relevant information at the beginning. Consider the following case, what problems could this cause to the reader?
I am writing to refer the patient named above, with the preliminary diagnosis of type 2 diabetes mellitus, to your care for further evaluation and treatment.
Mr. Collister is married and works as a factory foreman. During his visit three months ago, he was told about the change in his lifestyle due to his high BMI of 30 and his susceptibility to osteoarthritis.
The problem here is cohesion. Think about it, the first paragraph focuses on the main problem, which is type 2 diabetes, and then the second paragraph focuses on osteoarthritis.
According to OET preparation course for doctors this is confusing for the reader because no logical link is provided between the first and second paragraphs. If the medical history is directly related to the reference case then, yes, include it at the beginning of the letter, but if it serves primarily as a context for the main problem, include it later in the letter to avoid confusing the reader. For more information contact O2MASTERS to avoid all such mistakes.