Retelling a Freelancer’s Development with Accurate Subject and Object Questions

Hello again. In the last lesson, you introduced your work and learning goals, using past simple for finished events and present perfect for progress up to now. Today, you will read a dialogue about a freelancer’s development, then retell it from memory. Your main challenge is to preserve a small but important distinction: Who reviewed the draft? and Who did you ask for feedback? ask about different roles, so they need different question forms.

Objective: Retell the development story from memory, keeping its main events and forming subject and object questions accurately.
Estimated time: 60 minutes, including your daily 10-minute SRS review.
Success criteria: Your retell gives a clear account of the freelancer’s progress and includes at least four accurate questions from the dialogue—two about subjects and two about objects.

Spend 10 minutes reviewing cards due today. Retrieve each answer before turning the card over. Then put the cards away: the reading task below depends on remembering meaning, not memorising a script.

1. Hear the difference — 6 minutes

A subject question asks who or what performs an action. An object question asks who or what receives it. Watch the short explanation before reading the story.

The practical question is not “Does this sentence contain who?” Both types can. Ask instead: What answer am I looking for—the person doing the action, or the person affected by it?

2. Build the question from its answer — 7 minutes

Imagine the statement A colleague reviewed the draft. If the colleague is unknown, replace that subject with who: Who reviewed the draft? If the draft is unknown, keep a colleague as the subject and ask What did a colleague review?

Here are five models you can use when checking the dialogue:

1. Who reviewed the first draft? — asks about the reviewer; past-simple subject question.
2. Who did the freelancer ask for feedback? — asks about the person asked; past-simple object question.
3. What changed the freelancer’s approach? — asks about the cause of the change; past-simple subject question.
4. What did the freelancer change first? — asks about the thing changed; past-simple object question.
5. What has helped the freelancer improve? — asks about the cause; present-perfect subject question. The has belongs to has helped; it is not an added does or did.

Why this matters: In present simple and past simple, we normally add do, does, or did to an object question: “Who did you ask?” We do not add them to an ordinary subject question: “Who asked you?” But “no auxiliary” is only a shortcut for those simple tenses. Do not remove an auxiliary that the tense needs: “Who is reviewing the draft?” and “What has helped?”

3. Read for development, then for questions — 10 minutes

Read this original dialogue once for the story. On a second reading, mark each question with S if it asks about the subject or O if it asks about the object. Keep the words who and what with the verbs that follow them; those combinations will help you retell the conversation.

Interviewer: What started your interest in freelance writing?
Freelancer: A short online course started it. I wrote two sample articles and built a simple portfolio, but I wasn’t ready to send it to clients.

Interviewer: Who reviewed your first draft?
Freelancer: A peer in a writing group reviewed it. The comments were useful, so I asked a more experienced writer for feedback too.

Interviewer: Who did you ask for feedback?
Freelancer: I asked a writer who creates articles for small businesses. She said my introductions were too general.

Interviewer: What changed your approach?
Freelancer: Her comments changed it. I realised that readers needed concrete examples, not just broad promises.

Interviewer: What did you change first?
Freelancer: I rewrote the introductions and added specific results to my portfolio. Then I sent a clearer sample to a potential client.

Interviewer: Who checks your drafts now?
Freelancer: I check most drafts myself. A colleague checks longer pieces when I need another opinion.

Interviewer: Who do you contact when a client brief is unclear?
Freelancer: I contact the client. Asking early saves time and helps me write something useful.

Interviewer: What has helped you improve most?
Freelancer: Regular feedback has helped me most. I have also learnt to explain my decisions clearly instead of simply saying that I made a change.

The freelancer’s progress is more than a list of achievements. An initial portfolio led to feedback; feedback led to specific revisions; those revisions changed how the freelancer now works with clients. Remember that path when you close the text.

4. Check the roles before you close the text — 4 minutes

Use the statements below to complete the two questions. Say each answer aloud, then check it against the key.

Key: Who reviewed the first draft? / Who did the freelancer ask for feedback? / What did her comments change?

Notice that her comments remain the subject in the third question. The unknown part is what they changed, so the question needs did and the base form change.

5. Retell without looking — 12 minutes

Close or hide the dialogue. Take one minute to write only five memory cues: the first samples, the first reviewer, the second reviewer’s advice, the revisions, and the freelancer’s current habits. Do not write sentences.

Record a two- to three-minute retell from those cues. Tell the story in your own words, but reproduce at least four questions as direct questions, including two subject and two object questions. You might introduce one naturally with: “The interviewer then asked, ‘Who reviewed your first draft?’” Quoting the question lets you preserve its original form without turning it into an indirect question.

Do not stop the recording when you forget a detail. Give the next event you remember. Afterward, reopen the dialogue and compare the sequence of events and the question forms, not every word. If a question was wrong, record just that sentence again with the corrected form.

6. Check what your retell preserved — 6 minutes

Use this short rubric for your recording. Give yourself 0, 1, or 2 in each area.

Check two common mistakes especially carefully:

• “Who did review the first draft?” Use “Who reviewed the first draft?” for an ordinary past-simple subject question. An added did is possible for special emphasis, but that is not the meaning here.
• “Who the freelancer asked for feedback?” Use “Who did the freelancer ask for feedback?” for a direct past-simple object question.

To request feedback, paste a short transcript of your retell with its four questions, your rubric scores, and one question you corrected yourself. Remove any private details. If the same error occurs more than once, add it to your personal error checklist in the form: My question / Corrected question / Why.

7. Keep the distinction available — 5 minutes

A strong memory retell keeps both the development story and the roles inside its questions. When the unknown person or thing performs the action, it takes the subject’s place: “Who reviewed it?” When someone else performs the action on the unknown person or thing, keep that subject and form an object question: “Who did you ask?” In the next lesson, you will use this distinction to write and self-edit questions that clarify a client’s goals.

Add to SRS: Copy the CSV below into a file ending in .csv and import it into Anki with fields front, back, tag. Before saving the two dictation cards, record yourself reading their back sentences; during review, play the recordings without looking at the text. Replace the final card with a real correction from your retell, or leave it out for now. Review new cards after 1, 3, 7, 14, and 30 days; reserve 10 minutes daily for cards due.

front,back,tag
"Complete: I ___ feedback on my first draft.","I asked for feedback on my first draft.","work-learning-collocation"
"Complete: She ___ the introductions after the review.","She revised the introductions after the review.","work-learning-collocation"
"Complete: I ___ the client brief before writing.","I clarified the client brief before writing.","work-learning-collocation"
"Complete: I ___ specific results to my portfolio.","I added specific results to my portfolio.","work-learning-collocation"
"Ask about the reviewer: A peer reviewed the draft.","Who reviewed the draft?","work-learning-subject-question"
"Ask about the person contacted: The freelancer contacted the client.","Who did the freelancer contact?","work-learning-object-question"
"Ask about the cause: Regular feedback has helped the freelancer.","What has helped the freelancer?","work-learning-subject-question"
"Ask about the thing revised: She revised the introductions.","What did she revise?","work-learning-object-question"
"Correct: Who did changed your approach?","What changed your approach? The question asks about the cause, so what replaces the subject.","work-learning-subject-question"
"Dictation: play your recording of question A.","Who reviewed your first draft?","work-learning-dictation"
"Dictation: play your recording of question B.","Who did you ask for feedback?","work-learning-dictation"
"My question: [replace with a question from my retell]","My correction: [write the corrected question and whether it asks about the subject or object]","my-error"