OET Writing: How to Summarise Like a Clinician (Not a Court Reporter)
If you want higher OET Writing scores, you must decide what deserves full detail and what can be summarised—just like a busy clinician would in a real referral. Below is a clear, practical guide you can apply in your next practice letter.
What “summarisation” really means in OET
Summarising isn’t “making everything shorter.” It’s choosing where detail is essential and where a concise overview is more appropriate, based on your purpose and reader.
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Start with purpose → then choose content
Two common scenarios illustrate how purpose drives content:
Scenario A: You seek a diagnosis
Include vital signs, key symptoms, and objective findings so the specialist can build their assessment.
Scenario B: Diagnosis is confirmed; you seek intervention.
Lead with the confirmed test result and management needs; earlier visit details can be briefly summarised (e.g., “history and symptoms suggestive of…”), rather than listed in full.
This distinction tells you exactly what to expand and what to compress.
Language moves that make concise writing easy
1) List efficiently
Combine related symptoms in one clean sentence instead of three separate ones (e.g., “He presented with nasal congestion, frontal headache, and photophobia.”). Lists reduce word count without losing clarity.
2) Use precise medical collocations
Prefer concise clinical terms that bundle meaning (e.g., inflamed ulcer, hemodynamically unstable, respiratory distress). One precise phrase can replace several descriptive sentences.
3) Nominalise where helpful
Turn prepositional phrases into compact noun phrases (e.g., “pain in his neck” → “neck pain”). Nominalisation often trims words and tightens style—use it when it improves flow.
A simple plan for practice
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Plan before you write
Decide what will be detailed (new, critical, decision-making data) and what will be summarised (background, already-known, non-essential). Planning frees cognitive load for clarity. -
Build accuracy first, then add time pressure
Practise slowly to lock in structure and content choices; only then add timing so speed doesn’t force poor decisions. -
Get expert feedback
Targeted feedback on content selection and concision accelerates improvement.
FAQ (fast answers)
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Should I always include vitals?
Include them when they inform the specialist’s decision (e.g., seeking a diagnosis). If diagnosis is already confirmed and vitals don’t change management, summarise. -
How do I avoid over-summarising?
Ask: Will the specialist’s next action depend on this detail? If yes, include it fully; if no, compress it.
Want guided practice + ready-to-use drills?
Grab our free pack with nominalisation drills, summarisation exercises, and model paragraphs to copy-study. It’s designed for fast score gains in OET Writing.
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