OET Genre and Style: 6 Register Errors That Cost You Marks

Genre and Style is the criterion most candidates underestimate. They prepare their clinical vocabulary, practise their paragraph structure, and produce letters that are accurate in content but wrong in register. The result is a Band 3 or below for a criterion that should be achievable at Band 5 or higher with targeted correction.

The six errors below appear consistently in OET scripts. Some candidates make one of them. Many make two or three. Each one signals to the examiner that the writer has not fully controlled the clinical register required for professional correspondence.

1. Informal contractions

Contractions reduce formality. In spoken English and informal writing, “can’t”, “won’t”, “she’s”, “I’d”, and “they’re” are natural. In a clinical letter, they indicate a register mismatch.

Wrong: “She can’t return to work until her mobility improves and she won’t require further inpatient care.”

Right: “She is unable to return to work until her mobility improves and will not require further inpatient care.”

This change costs no clinical information. It costs nothing in sentence length. It lifts register from informal to professional with one edit per contraction.

2. Value judgements about the patient

Clinical letters describe findings and behaviours, not character. Phrases that evaluate the patient as a person (compliant, cooperative, motivated, difficult) are personal judgements, not clinical observations.

Wrong: “He has been a very cooperative patient throughout his treatment.”

Right: “He has completed all recommended physiotherapy sessions and performed his home exercise programme consistently.”

The second version communicates the same clinical fact (the patient engaged with treatment) in observable, reportable terms. The first reads as a character reference.

Under Genre and Style, personal judgements in clinical letters are an “inappropriacy for the document type.” They are not clinical in register.

3. Copying abbreviations directly from the case notes

Case notes are internal shorthand. Carrying that notation into a letter body is one of the most frequent Genre and Style errors, and it affects any recipient, not just lay readers.

Wrong: “Pt c/o SOB x3/7, productive cough, T38.4. CXR NAD. LRTI suspected.”

Right: “The patient reports a three-day history of shortness of breath with a productive cough. Temperature was 38.4°C on presentation. Chest X-ray showed no acute changes. Lower respiratory tract infection was suspected.”

The case note version belongs in a notes template, not a letter. Even if the recipient is a chest physician who knows every abbreviation, the document genre requires written sentences with appropriate medical terminology rather than shorthand transcription.

4. Wrong register for the recipient’s discipline

Genre and Style scores your ability to adapt to the specific reader. A letter to a GP and a letter to a cardiologist, based on the same case notes, should use different registers.

For a cardiologist: “Troponin at 6 hours was 0.08 ng/mL, with a rising pattern at 12 hours (0.14 ng/mL), consistent with a Type 2 NSTEMI.”

For a GP: “Blood tests showed rising cardiac enzyme levels, confirming a type of heart attack related to reduced oxygen supply rather than a blocked artery.”

Neither version is incorrect. Using the cardiologist version for a GP letter affects Genre because the recipient does not interpret troponin patterns routinely. Using the GP version for a cardiologist letter affects Genre because it is imprecise for a reader who needs the actual values.

5. Excessive hedging

Polite formulations are expected. Excessive hedging affects clinical directness.

Wrong: “I would perhaps like to humbly suggest that, should it be considered appropriate, you might potentially review this patient at your convenience, if possible.”

Right: “I would be grateful if you could review this patient at your earliest convenience.”

The first version signals a register error. Not informality but over-formality that obscures the request. Examiners expect professional courtesy without epistemic excess.

The correct level is polite and clear: “I am writing to request”, “I would be grateful for your assessment”, “Please do not hesitate to contact me.” Nothing beyond that.

6. Social register in a clinical document

Clinical letters occasionally include social information from the case notes (living situation, employment, family support). When that information is relevant, include it. When it is not, leave it out. When it is included, keep it in clinical reporting style.

Wrong: “She lives alone and has unfortunately been having a really hard time lately, which has made her recovery more difficult.”

Right: “She lives alone without immediate carer support, which may affect her capacity to manage the prescribed rehabilitation programme independently.”

The first sentence uses social register (conversational, sympathetic tone, subjective framing). The second uses clinical register (functional relevance, objective framing, specific implication for care). Genre and Style rewards the second version consistently.

For the full descriptor text for Genre and Style at each band level, see the OET writing band descriptors. The six criteria together and how they interact are covered on the OET writing criteria hub. The OET writing mistakes post covers the broader set of errors across all criteria.