The Ultimate OET

Writing Guide

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 CONTENTS E2LANGUAGE
WRITING GUIDE

1 INTRODUCTION
READ THE TASK

2 READ THE TASK

3 INTERPRETING CASE NOTES CORRECTLY

4 SELECTING RELEVANT CASE NOTES

5 ORGANISING CASE NOTES LOGICALLY AND COHERENTLY

6 TRANSFORMING CASE NOTES ACCURATELY

7 PROPER LETTER FORMAT

 INTRODUCTION

In OET Writing you will have 45 minutes to read a set of case notes and write a
letter -- usually a referral letter, but sometimes a discharge or transfer letter -- to
a fellow professional or layperson. The case notes and TASK you receive will be
profession specific; that is, doctors receive medical case notes, nurses receive
nursing case notes etc. You probably write letters like this all the time in your current
practice; however, keep in mind that in order to get the score you want on the OET
test you may have to change the way you write to satisfy the examiners.

You should certainly practice writing OET sub-tests before test day and it is a very good
idea to use a ‘method’ while you practice and on test day.

E2Language reccomends the following method:

• Read the TASK carefully Book 1:1

• Interpret case notes correctly E2 Tutorial
• Select relevant case notes Today!
Click Here
• Transform case notes accurately
• Organise your writing logically

Please note that this method is not necessarily step-by-step. You will need to refer back to
each part of the method a number of times throughout the duration of the test.

Nevertheless, the method provides a solid set of instructions that will help you to under-
stand what you need to do on test day to improve your chances of success on this sub-
test.

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 READ THE TASK

The OET Writing sub-test goes for 45 minutes, the first five minutes of which is only for
reading. The first thing you should do during the five minutes reading time is read the
TASK carefully. The TASK is located at the bottom of the case notes and looks something
like this:

TASK
Using the information in the case notes, write a letter to Ms Samantha Bruin,
Senior Nurse at Greywalls Nursing Home, 27 Station Road, Greywalls, who
will be responsible for Mr Baker’s continued care at the Nursing Home.

Usually, the TASK will provide you with:

• The recipient’s name

• The recipient’s position/profession
• The recipient’s place of work and address
• A reference to what type of letter you must write:
referral, discharge, transfer or information

You can also see or infer from the TASK whether the recipient knows the patient or
whether you are introducing the patient to the recipient for the first time. Knowing this
information is critical for case note selection. For example, in the TASK above, we can
infer that Ms Bruin knows Mr Baker already.

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 INTERPRETING CASE NOTES CORRECTLY

Having read the TASK, you now know WHO you are writing to and WHY, so you should
begin reading the case notes, paying special attention to case notes that are pertinent to
the TASK.

The case notes will not be written in perfect sentences and are somewhat challenging to
understand. As such, you will need to ‘interpret’ them. It is critical that you interpret the
case notes correctly because misinterpretations will result in incorrect information being
placed in your letter.

Sometimes the case notes will be written in short ungrammatical phrases, such as:

NURSING MANAGEMENT AND PROGRESS

daily dressings surgery incision site

A case note may also use an abbreviation, such as:

DISCHARGE PLAN
Social worker organised 2-wk hire of walker

In addition, case notes may even include symbols such as arrows.

For example:

PAST MEDICAL HISTORY

Eyesight ^ due to cataracts removed 16 mths ago

It is also critical to pay attention to the sub-heading or category that a specific case note is
under. Compare these two case notes:

PAST MEDICAL HISTORY ADMISSION DIAGNOSIS

hernia hernia

There are important differences between a hernia mentioned in ‘past medical history’ and
a hernia mentioned in ‘admission diagnosis’.
 SELECTING CASE NOTES

After you have read and correctly interpreted the case notes
you will then need to think more carefully about case note
relevance. Considering the body of your letter should only be 1.
between 180 and 200 words, you simply cannot – and you UNDERSTAND
certainly should not – include all of the case notes. THE TASK
FULLY!

Again, you need to make sure you are writing a relevant

letter, and that largely depends on the TASK. Make sure you
understand the TASK fully and you know who you are writing
to and why. Write the letter for – and only for – the recipient,
keeping his or her needs in mind at all times.
2.
WHO ARE
YOU WRITING
Selecting case notes, however, is challenging because while TO?
some case notes will clearly be relevant and irrelevant,
others will be semi-relevant. You have to make decisions
about which case notes to include and which case notes to
ignore. This is why practice is so important: By practicing the
OET writing sub-test, you will develop an understanding of
how many case notes you should include in order to write an
appropriate length. You do not want to write a letter on test 3.
day that is well below or well above the word count. WHY ARE
YOU WRITING
TO THEM?
Try using these tips to help you select relevant case notes!

Get
4.
writing WHAT CASE
feedback NOTES ARE
now! RELEVENT?
Click Here

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 ORGANISING CASE NOTES LOGICALLY AND COHERENTLY

‘Organising case notes’ and the following step ‘transforming case notes’ happen
simultaneously while you write. In other words, as you organise case notes into logical
paragraphs you will also be transforming them into accurate sentences.

The structure of your letter is critical for success. In short, it needs to be ‘readable’, not
just grammatically, but it should flow from beginning to end in a coherent and logical way.
Although there’s no ‘set structure’ for OET writing, there are some guidelines that you
should keep in mind when organising your letter:

1. The introductory sentence/paragraph should contain the reason why you are
writing the letter (i.e. refer, discharge, transfer) and the main medical issue. As
a rule, important information should be prioritised or brought to the top of the
letter; don’t bury the important information deep in the letter.

2. Paragraphs should contain single ‘themes’. A paragraph should not

contain mixed information; it should be clear what the paragraph is about, not
confusing.

3. The internal structure of the paragraph should also flow from beginning to
end. So, while your whole letter should flow from beginning to end so should
your paragraphs be structured coherently.

You may want to spend a minute or two ‘planning’ your letter structure before you begin
writing.

Ask yourself:
Speak to an
• What’s the most important issue? E2 Expert
• What’s the secondary issue? today!
• What else does the reader need to know?
Click Here

Sketch out a simple paragraph structure before you start writing because once you start
writing it’s very difficult to restructure, for you are writing on paper not a computer.
 TRANSFORMING CASE NOTES ACCURATELY

Grammatical accuracy accounts for 20% of your mark; however, if your grammar is
incomprehensible then it will affect much more than 20% of your overall grade. Consider
the difference in meaning from these three verb tenses:

• Mr Baker experiences migraines. (regularly) Speak to an

• Mr Baker experienced migraines. (in the past) E2 Expert
• Mr Baker is experiencing migraines. (currently) today!
Click Here

You need to transform case notes into grammatically accurate sentences so that the
meaning is clear to the reader and reflects the intended meaning of the case note.

You should also make sure that you include a range of different sentence types – some
short, some complex, some active, some passive; but remember that the aim is to not
include various sentence types but to communicate information as clearly as you possibly
can that will require you to use varied sentence types and grammar.

After you have finished your letter, give it a once over for any silly grammar mistakes.
Many candidates make mistakes with:

• Singular and plural nouns (pimple vs pimples)

• Countable and uncountable nouns (blood vs bloods)
• Articles (a headache vs the headache)
• Verbs (suffers from vs is suffering from vs has suffered from etc.)
• Prepositions (please monitor for anaemia / he is on medication)

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 Book 1:1
E2 Tutorial
PROPER LETTER FORMAT Today!
Click Here

There are different ways to format your letter but here is a standard approach:

Recipient title and full name Ms Samantha Bruin

Profession/Position Senior Nurse
Hospital/Clinic name Greywalls Nursing Home
Hospital/Clinic address 27 Station Road, Greywalls
(Today’s date) dd/mm/yyyy
Salutation Dear Ms Bruin,
Re: Patient name, patient age Re. Gerald Baker, aged 63 years
Introduction -
Paragraph 1 -
Paragraph 2 -
(Paragraph 3) -
If you have any queries, please do not hesitate
Closing Phrase to contact me.
Sign off Yours sincerely
Your profession Charge Nurse

As you can see, if you memorise the letter format most of your precious writing time can be
spent on the introduction and ‘body paragraphs’.

One final -- and CRITICAL -- thing I want to leave you with is this: There is no set
structure for the letter. The structure of the letter entirely depends on the TASK and the
set of case notes you receive on test day. If you remember one thing, remember this:
Be Flexible - put yourself in the shoes of the recipient and give them what they need for the
case of the patient.

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