OET letter structure: a walkthrough from case notes to sign-off

Case notes follow a recognisable shape: patient details, social background, history, medications and allergies, dated clinical entries, and a plan. The task instruction at the end names your reader and your job, so many experienced candidates read the task first, then the notes with the reader in mind.

As you read, mark each item for one question: does this reader need it to act? A community nurse continuing wound care needs the dressing regime, the wound state, and the follow-up plan; she does not need the family history that mattered on admission.

Open with the recipient's name and address block as given in the task, the date, a salutation using the name you were given, and a subject line identifying the patient, usually name and date of birth. Close with an appropriate sign-off, your role, and your workplace as the task defines it.

These conventions are cheap marks under Organisation and Layout: they cost seconds and their absence is visible instantly.

A dependable body plan for most tasks has four moves. First, one or two sentences stating who the patient is and why you are writing. Second, the current situation: what happened this admission or episode, and where things stand today. Third, the relevant background: history, medications, allergies, and social context the reader needs. Fourth, the requests: exactly what you want the reader to do, itemised in clear sentences.

• Opening: patient, context, purpose in the first sentence.
• Current situation: this episode, treatment given, present state.
• Relevant background: only what this reader must know.
• Requests and follow-up: explicit actions, dates if given, and the closing convention.

Standard tasks ask for roughly 180 to 200 words in the body. Treat the budget as a selection instrument: if your draft runs to 300 words, you have almost certainly copied material the reader does not need, and Conciseness and Clarity will pay for it.

Writing under the budget is safer than far over it, provided the reader still gets everything needed to act.

The task requires complete sentences. Transferring abbreviations and note fragments into the letter costs marks across several criteria at once. Practise turning a dated entry like a raised temperature with a wound review into one clean sentence that a reader outside the ward can follow.

The skill that separates B letters is doing this expansion while compressing: several related note lines become one sentence carrying only what matters.