Lexis Lesson · Four Real Scopes

01

Warm-up · 4 min

Your own scope

Read out the scope statement you found. Notice its shape before Phase 02 tells you what to look for.

Predict

Before Phase 02, predict:

1. Four real scope statements are about to appear. What will they most likely have in common?

Each one starts with the contractor’s name None of them names who is doing the work They are all written in numbered steps

02

Input & Noticing · 14 min

Four real scope statements

Verbatim from three of your own sets; the fourth built from the same register.

Wooster Ave.: "Replace an existing wood fence. Replace an existing retaining wall. Paver installation. SOD installation."

Colonial Ln.: "Stair, wooden deck and retaining wall construction, paver installation, swim spa and hot tube installation."

Vancouver Ave.: "Replace landscape of the full yard. Rebuild part of the sidewalk and curb. Rebuild apron. Electric outdoor sauna installation."

Silverwood Dr.: "Landscape redesign. Impervious surface reduction. Paver and artificial turf installation."

Teacher note The Silverwood line is constructed, not verbatim — the corpus paraphrases that set’s scope rather than quoting it, unlike the other three. Say so if she asks; the register it is written in is real, the exact wording is not.

Notice what is missing from all four. No "I will." No "the contractor shall." No subject at all. Just nouns, sometimes with an adjective, followed by a full stop. "Paver installation." is a complete scope item — not a sentence fragment waiting to be finished.

And notice the Colonial Ln. line keeps its own typo — "hot tube" instead of "hot tub." Real documents are not always perfect, and this course quotes them exactly rather than silently correcting them.

Discovery Check

Check what you just read.

1. Which of the four scope statements is CONSTRUCTED rather than quoted verbatim?

Wooster Ave. Colonial Ln. Silverwood Dr.

2. Why does this course keep the Colonial Ln. line’s "hot tube" typo instead of fixing it?

It quotes real documents exactly rather than silently cleaning them up The typo is actually correct spelling It was fixed everywhere except this one line

03

Focus on Form · 10 min

The pattern across all four

The nominal scope pattern

Feature	Present in all four?
A verb-based sentence ("I will…")	No — never
A noun + noun pair ("paver installation")	Yes — every item
A full stop after each item	Yes
A stated actor (who does it)	No — never named

This is not four designers happening to write the same way by coincidence. It is a genre convention — a scope of work is a list of deliverables, not a narrative, and the grammar reflects that on every real set in this corpus.

Why It Looks Like That

Match each feature to the real reason it appears. Click the feature, then the reason.

A scope is a list of deliverables, not a story

It names the item and the action together, briefly

Each item stands alone as its own line, not part of a longer sentence

The contractor reading their own document already knows who is doing the work

04

Controlled Practice · 14 min

Read the pattern

MCQ Reading

All the evidence is in Phase 02.

1. What do all four scope statements have in common grammatically?

They are all exactly the same length. None of them names who is doing the work, and none uses a full verb sentence. They all mention a swim spa.

2. Why does the Colonial Ln. set keep "hot tube" rather than correcting it to "hot tub"?

It was corrected — this is a different error. Real documents are quoted exactly, including their own imperfections, rather than silently cleaned up. Both spellings are equally correct.

3. Which project’s scope includes a sauna?

Wooster Ave. Colonial Ln. Vancouver Ave.

Lexical Matching

Match each scope item to its project. Click the item, then the project.

Wooster Ave.

Colonial Ln.

Vancouver Ave.

Silverwood Dr.

05

Communicative Task · 10 min

Write one more

Task card

A fifth, invented project

Write a scope-of-work statement for it in the same nominal register as the real four.

No "I will." No named actor. Nouns and full stops.
At least three items, each a genuine deliverable.
Read it aloud and check it could sit beside the real four without standing out.

Before You Write

One check before you write the fifth scope.

1. Your invented scope has to include:

A greeting and a sign-off At least three items, nominal, with no named actor Numbers and unit prices

06

Feedback · 4 min

Did a verb sneak in?

Check your scope for "will," "is," or any full verb. If one appears, rewrite that item as a pure noun phrase.

One More Check

One more check before you move on.

1. You find "is" in one of your scope items. What do you do?

Leave it — one verb is fine Rewrite that item as a pure noun phrase Add "will" to match it

07

Wrap-up · 4 min

Before the next lesson

Homework. Take one item from your invented scope ("paver installation") and try turning it back into a full sentence ("we will install pavers"). Notice what changes.

Quick Check

One check before you go.

1. Tonight’s homework asks you to:

Turn a scope noun phrase back into a full sentence Memorise all four real scope statements Nothing — there is no homework