Fixing the OPD Closure Notice
The medical superintendent's office must put a notice on the OPD display board. The facts are these: the OPD, except the emergency block, the dressing room and the pharmacy, will be closed on Saturday, 15 August, a public holiday; patients who already hold an appointment for that date do not need a fresh registration and may be seen on any working day up to 23 August; the help desk, 011-2xxxxxxx, will confirm; the emergency block and the pharmacy work round the clock as usual. The board takes about 60 words in the font used. The house style asks for plain, active, patient-facing English, no vague time references and no formulaic apology. A junior assistant submits: 'All the patients are hereby informed that the OPD will remain close on 15th August due to Independence Day. The patients who are having appointments on that day may be reschedule their appointment for next week by contacting the help desk. Emergency and pharmacy will be function. Inconvenience caused is regretted to all.' The superintendent wants the errors named, not silently fixed.
1. Identify the errors and faults in the junior assistant's draft, naming the rule or reason for each.
Read the worked answer
Six faults are worth naming:
- 'All the patients' - a generic plural takes no definite article; write 'all patients'. The article wrongly suggests a specific group already identified.
- 'will remain close' - after the linking verb 'remain' the complement must be the adjective 'closed', not the verb 'close'.
- 'who are having appointments' - 'have' is a stative verb and is not used in the progressive; write 'who have an appointment'. The plural 'appointments' also clashes with the singular 'that day'.
- 'may be reschedule' - a modal takes the bare infinitive; 'may reschedule'. Better still, 'should reschedule', because a notice is an instruction, not a permission.
- 'for next week' - a deictic time reference. The reader does not know when the notice is being read, so 'next week' may mean anything; the actual date, 23 August, must be printed. 'Will be function' in the same sentence is the same class of error: 'be' plus a bare verb; it should be 'will function'.
- 'Inconvenience caused is regretted to all' - a passive construction with an inanimate agent and the wrong preposition, and it apologises in the abstract. 'We regret the inconvenience' is shorter and honest.
The draft also omits three facts the board exists to convey: no fresh registration is needed, the help desk number, and the dressing room.
2. Write the final notice within the 60-word limit and justify the two choices that most affect whether patients actually understand it.
Read the worked answer
Final notice (52 words):
'OPD closed on Saturday, 15 August. Emergency, dressing room and pharmacy will work round the clock. Patients holding an appointment for 15 August do not need a new registration; they may be seen on any working day up to 23 August. For confirmation, call the help desk, 011-2xxxxxxx. We regret the inconvenience.'
Two choices carry the notice. First, the date. 'Next week' tells a patient who reads the board on 20 August nothing usable, and it lets two staff members give two different answers at the counter. 'Any working day up to 23 August' converts a vague promise into a rule that a clerk can apply without discretion, and it protects the hospital from claims that the offer was open-ended.
Second, the order of information. The closure and the reassurance about emergency services come first, because that is the question a patient arriving on 15 August is actually asking. The registration concession comes next, and the apology last and once. In active voice and under 60 words, the notice fits the board, keeps the telephone number legible, and needs no second reading.