Check the draft against the task before you check it against the grammar book. A missing point costs more than a wrong tense, and reading for errors will not find it.
This lesson is part of revising an English response without replacing the student voice. It applies the first pass of balancing content, organisation and language.
How do you match a draft to the task?
List what the task asks for in a column. Beside each item, write the sentence from your draft that answers it. The list shows what is required, and the sentences show what is there.
List four kinds of demand: each bullet point, the reader, the purpose, and the format, such as an email or a letter.
Worked example: a school trip email
Task: write an email to your form teacher about a class trip to a science museum. Give a reason for choosing the museum, suggest a date, and say how the class will travel. You are writing to a teacher.
Draft: “Dear Cikgu Farah, I think we should go to the National Science Centre because it has many experiments that we can try ourselves. The class can go on a school day in March. Please tell me what you think. Thank you.”
| Demand | Answered? | Sentence in the draft |
|---|---|---|
| Reason for the museum | Yes | “it has many experiments we can try ourselves” |
| A suggested date | Partly | “a school day in March”, no specific day |
| How the class will travel | No | Nothing |
| Audience: teacher | Yes | “Dear Cikgu Farah”, polite tone |
| Format: email | Yes | Greeting and closing |
The grammar in the draft is nearly flawless, yet the travel point is missing and the date is vague. Fixing commas would not help.
How do you repair it?
Add a sentence for the missing point and tighten the vague one. Keep the writer’s own style: “We can travel together by the school bus, so nobody needs to arrange their own transport.”
Then make the date clear: “I suggest Wednesday 12 March, as there are no tests that week.” Check the wording around these two changes only after you have made them.
The mistake that loses marks
The common slip is to reread the draft for errors and call that checking. Rereading finds mistakes in what you wrote, but not what you forgot to write.
The repair is a short list of demands, made before you start and ticked after you finish. It takes under a minute.
Check yourself
Task: write to your headmaster suggesting a recycling bin project. Include where the bins go, who will empty them, and why it matters.
Draft: “Dear Sir, I suggest placing recycling bins near the canteen and the library. Recycling is important for our environment. Yours faithfully, Imran.” Which demand is missing?
Answer
Who will empty the bins is missing. The location is covered, and so is the reason, though the reason is very general.
Repair: add a sentence such as “The Environment Club members could empty the bins every Friday.” Then add one detail to the reason.
What to study next
Continue with turning a list of opinions into a paragraph with a supported main idea. Use the English writing task checklist to list the demands of any task.
If you would like a teacher to check your drafts against the task, see online one-to-one English tuition.