The OET Language criterion: 10 grammar errors nurses make in letters, and how to fix them
Language (marked 0–7) covers grammar, vocabulary, spelling and punctuation, and asks whether errors get in the way of the reader understanding you. The errors that most often pull nursing letters down are missing or wrong articles ('a/the'), the wrong past tense for the patient's history, subject–verb agreement, and run-on sentences. Fix these by proofreading for one error type at a time in the last minutes, and keep spelling consistently British or American.
What the Language criterion covers
Language is one of OET's six Writing criteria, marked from 0 to 7. It looks at the accuracy of your grammar, vocabulary, spelling and punctuation, and at whether errors distract the reader or make the meaning unclear. Occasional slips matter less than errors that are frequent or change the meaning: "the patient was not given insulin" and "the patient was given no insulin until" are not the same instruction.
Language is separate from Genre & Style, which is about register and tone. "Pt is ok now" is a style problem; "The patient have improved" is a language problem. For all six criteria, see the OET Writing criteria explained.
10 frequent errors in nursing letters
All examples are invented.
| # | Error | Wrong | Right |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Missing article | She was admitted after fall. | She was admitted after a fall. |
| 2 | Wrong article | He has the history of asthma. | He has a history of asthma. |
| 3 | Present perfect with a past time | She has been discharged yesterday. | She was discharged yesterday. |
| 4 | Past simple where the situation continues | He was a smoker for 30 years and still smokes. | He has been a smoker for 30 years. |
| 5 | Subject–verb agreement | His blood pressure readings was stable. | His blood pressure readings were stable. |
| 6 | Uncountable nouns | She needs an advice about her diets. | She needs advice about her diet. |
| 7 | Prepositions | She was admitted in 4 May with Ward 3. | She was admitted on 4 May to Ward 3. |
| 8 | Run-on sentence | He is mobile, he needs supervision on stairs. | He is mobile, but he needs supervision on stairs. |
| 9 | Passive formed wrongly | The wound was dress daily. | The wound was dressed daily. |
| 10 | Mixed spelling | Her haemoglobin was low; she was anemic. | Her haemoglobin was low; she was anaemic. |
Tenses for a patient's story
Most nursing letters move between three time frames. Matching the tense to the time frame removes many errors at once.
| Time frame | Tense | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Completed event with a time | Past simple | Mr Osei was admitted on 2 June with pneumonia. |
| From the past up to now | Present perfect | Since then, his oxygen saturation has improved. |
| Current situation | Present simple | He lives with his son and uses a walking stick. |
| Planned future | Future / present continuous | He will be discharged tomorrow. / He is being discharged today. |
| Your request | Polite modal | I would be grateful if you could review him. |
For more on rewriting note form into sentences, including the tense choices above, see turning case notes into full sentences.
Worked correction
Invented draft paragraph from a discharge letter:
Mrs Novak is 82-year-old woman who has been admitted on 6 June after fall at her home. X-ray was showing no fracture but she have bruising on left hip. She was mobilise with frame and she need supervision in the stairs, she lives alone.
Corrected:
Mrs Novak is an 82-year-old woman who was admitted on 6 June after a fall at home. An X-ray showed no fracture, but she has bruising on her left hip. She is mobilising with a frame and needs supervision on the stairs. As she lives alone, …
Eleven changes in three sentences: articles and determiners, tenses, subject–verb agreement, a preposition, and a run-on sentence split in two. None of these change the clinical content, but together they make the paragraph harder to read, which is exactly what the Language criterion looks at.
A five-minute proofreading routine
Proofreading for "everything" at once tends to miss things. Instead, scan your letter several times quickly, each time for one error type:
- Verbs. Is each tense right for its time frame? Does each verb agree with its subject?
- Nouns. Does every singular countable noun have an article or determiner?
- Sentences. Is any sentence joined only by commas? Is any sentence longer than about 30 words?
- Prepositions after common words: admitted to / on, discharged from, referred to, on the stairs.
- Spelling. British or American throughout? Medication names and the patient's name spelled as in the notes?
Use whatever time remains at the end of the test; check oet.com for the current test timing.
Building accuracy before test day
- Keep a personal error log: write down each error a teacher or checker finds and the corrected version. Most people repeat the same five or six.
- Rewrite one paragraph a day from case notes, then proofread with the routine above.
- Read well-written letters aloud. Articles and agreement errors are easier to hear than to see.
Practise and check
Write a letter from the medEmu practice case notes, then check your letter. medEmu gives Language its own 0–7 mark and marks each error on your own sentences with the corrected version and the reason, which makes a personal error log easy to build. Your first letter is graded free without an account, and you get 5 more when you sign up. Grades are estimates for practice, not official OET results, and medEmu is not affiliated with OET. For mistakes beyond grammar, see 12 common OET Writing mistakes.
Sources
This guide is medEmu's writing advice, not official OET guidance; all patients and examples are invented. The criterion name and its 0–7 range are as OET describes them. For OET's official Writing assessment criteria, see oet.com.