What is the 'OET Sandwich'?

The OET Sandwich is an idea we use in the SET English. The idea of is a little bit silly. Yet, it is a useful way to start thinking about how to write an OET letter. What is the OET Sandwich?

The OET Sandwich is a way of thinking about how to structure your OET letter. Remember, in the last chapter, I spoke about 'paragraph function' and I told you that some important paragraph functions were:

• Introduction Paragraph
• Requests Paragraph

The reason they are so important is that your Introduction Paragraph is always the first paragraph in your letter. Your Requests Paragraph is always your last paragraph. 

Therefore, your OET letter is like a sandwich:

There are two reasons why at SET English we think it is useful to think about your OET letter like a sandwich:

• A sandwich always needs two pieces of bread. In the same way, in an OET letter you always need an Introduction and a Requests paragraph. This will not change.
• In a sandwich, what you put between the bread can change. It depends on what you want to eat. You can put cheese or ham in your sandwich. You can put tomatoes and chicken, or whatever you want! There are many different kinds of sandwiches. In the same way, the paragraphs you put between your Introduction and your Requests Paragraph can change. It always depends on what the READER needs.

To put this last point another way: in the same way that a sandwich can have many different things between the bread, an OET letter can have different paragraph functions between the Introduction paragraph and the Requests paragraph.

This is the OET Sandwich.