Your count
Say your homework count — how many email sentences sounded like a list. Read one out.
Before Phase 02, predict:
1. What do you think the single most common error in this whole unit actually is?
The two patterns
Collected across Lessons 1–5
| Pattern | What appears | What it should be |
|---|---|---|
| Over-nominalised email | Fence replacement next week. Paver installation to follow. | We're replacing the fence next week. Paver installation will follow. |
| Under-nominalised scope | We will replace the fence. (in a scope statement) | Fence replacement. |
| Wrong future certainty | We’ll start Monday. (already confirmed) | We're starting Monday. |
The over-nominalised email is the one worth taking seriously, because it reads as cold and impersonal to an English-speaking client — a run of noun phrases where they expect a person talking to them. It is grammatically fine and professionally wrong, exactly the pattern this course keeps returning to at every level.
Check what you just read.
1. Which of the three patterns in the table is described as the one worth taking seriously?
2. Why does it matter more than the other two patterns?
Putting the verb back
Un-nominalising for the email
| Nominal (wrong here) | Full sentence (right here) |
|---|---|
| Fence replacement next week. | We're replacing the fence next week. |
| Paver installation to follow. | Paver installation will follow. / We’ll install the pavers after that. |
| SOD installation, final stage. | The final stage is SOD installation, which we'll do last. |
The reverse move of Lesson 3: put the subject and the verb back, choose the right future form, and let the sentence sound like something a person would actually say.
Put these four steps in the order you would actually do them.
Fix them
Each line is in the wrong register for a client email. Rewrite it as a full sentence.
1. Fence replacement next week.
2. Paver installation to follow.
Choose the version that fits a client email better.
1. Confirming a job in an email:
2. The scope-of-work document itself:
Rewrite your own email
Task card
Your Lesson 5 client email
Read it back and fix every sentence that sounds like a list instead of a person talking.
- Read aloud — over-nominalisation is easier to hear than to see.
- Keep the scope statement itself untouched — only the email changes.
- Say the corrected email straight through at the end.
One check before you begin.
1. Which document should stay untouched while you fix the other?
Which direction did you drift?
Over the whole unit, which error did you make more — verbs leaking into the scope, or nouns leaking into the email?
One more check before you move on.
1. If nouns keep leaking into your emails, what should you keep in mind going forward?
Before the next lesson
Homework. Think about how you would react if a client called mid-project asking to add something significant. Be ready — it happens next lesson.
One check before you go.
1. Next lesson rehearses: