OET WRITING
GENERAL LAYOUT OF THE LETTERS
1. ADDRESS
This is gotten from the Writing Task and should contain the following:-
Recipient’s full name including the honorific (if given). Honorifics include words such
as Mr., Ms., Miss., Mrs.
Profession
Facility
Address of the facility
The style in OET allows you to capitalize everything without punctuation as shown.
MR. TIMOTHY WAMALWA
HEAD NURSE
KITALE NURSING HOME
43-30200
KITALE
Alternatively, the address can be written as follows; pay attention to the capitalization and
punctuation
Mr. Timothy Wamalwa,
Head Nurse,
Kitale Nursing Home,
43-30200,
Kitale.
2. DATE
Designed by W.N Timothy Page 1
Date is not part of the address; skip a line so as to separate it from the address. Always use the
standard date format i.e.
28th May 2022
28 May 2022
Always use the current date
3. SALUTATION
Here, you address yourself to the reader or recipient of the letter. There are rules that govern this.
When the name of the recipient given use the surname. E.g. Dear Mr. Wamalwa,
If the name of the recipient isn’t given, use the profession e.g. Dear Nurse, Dear
Doctor,
N/B
1. There should be a comma after the surname or the profession when saluting.
2. Ms. is used when referring to married or unmarried women; Mr. is used with men
above 18; Miss is used with unmarried women; Mrs. is used with married women.
4. RE:
This contains
The patient’s name and Age or D.O.B
Address if given and necessary
E.g. RE: Mr. George Gale, D.OB: 24th April 1936
OR
RE: Mr. George Gale, 78 years old
Designed by W.N Timothy Page 2
5. BODY OF THE LETTER
Note that words are only counted from here.
Introduction
Ideally, the first paragraph should state your purpose of writing the letter and the following
paragraphs should elaborate on the information
The introduction of the letter should be short and must clearly state the purpose of the letter.
Answer the following questions:-
✓Who is the patient ?
✓ Why are you writing?
✓What should the recipient/reader do?
✓ Recovery status and discharge day may be needed for discharge letters.
Letters can begin with
Mr. Smith is being discharged back to your care…
Or
Thank you for seeing Mr. Watson..
Or
I am writing to refer Mr. Jones...
Summary of Chief Complaints Paragraph:
Give a detailed summary of the chief complaint in this section of the letter.
Secondary or Additional Information Paragraph
Add more relevant information about the patient you think your recipient should know.
Discharge/Treatment/Transfer Plan and Medications Paragraph
According to the type of letter (referral or discharge etc.), this paragraph(s) should mention the
plan from case notes.
Designed by W.N Timothy Page 3
Request and or Concluding Paragraph
This is an important part of a formal letter. Here, you are requesting the recipient to perform the
task and telling them that you are willing to answer any questions they might have.This sentence
gives a nice correspondence tone to your letter.
A COMMON PHRASE IS: I would appreciate if you could…. and should you have any
further queries, please do not hesitate to contact me.
6. SIGNING OFF
Here you need to be careful. There should be:
Closing tag
Yours sincerely – when the name of the recipient is given
Yours faithfully- when the name of the recipient isn’t given
YourS profession
Nurse/ Nurse in Charge/Midwife/ Senior Nurse
e.g. Yours faithfully,
Nurse
Note the following
The y in yours should be capitalized as well the f in faithfully or s in sincerely
There should be a comma after the closing tag.
PS: Specific letters have slight variations in the body.
Designed by W.N Timothy Page 4
