present perfect vs past simple

[wlokiczyj]

Hello, would you kindly take a look at this short letter ?
I'm not so sure about when to use perfect or where the past simple is sufficient.

Dear Thomas,
I'm sorry about not writing to you for such a long time! At least I' ve got some great news to tell You. Me and my class has organised a charity auction last week! Actually, it was me who came up with the idea, and I was leading the whole auction.
During the preparations, we have encountered quite a problem. We couldn't receive enough interesting things for the auction, from the people at school. So a girl from my class decided that we should make some handcrafting. It has turned out to be a wonderful idea! Some of us created paintings the others did some funny T-shirts, one girl even sewed a beautiful doll. The attendance surpassed our expectations. There is no need in telling you that the handmade things were the ones most popular during the auction.

Did I do some grammar mistakes ?
Or maybe have I done some mistakes in the letter ?

As You see I'm not so sure about using this tenses.
Could You advise me a way to improve this particular aspect? I'm working with "Cambridge advanced grammar in use", although it's a great book, there aren't many examples per topic.
Thank You.

 

[emsr2d2]

Hello, would you kindly take a look at this short letter?
I'm not so sure about when to use perfect or where the past simple is sufficient.

Dear Thomas,

I'm sorry about not writing to you for such a long time! At least I've got some great news to tell [STRIKE]You[/STRIKE] you. [STRIKE]Me and[/STRIKE] My class and I [STRIKE]has[/STRIKE] organised a charity auction last week! Actually, it was me who came up with the idea, and I was leading the whole auction.
During the preparations, we [STRIKE]have[/STRIKE] encountered quite a problem. We couldn't [STRIKE]receive[/STRIKE] get/find enough interesting things for the auction (no comma here) from the people at school so a girl from my class decided that we should make some [STRIKE]handcrafting[/STRIKE] handicrafts/handmade items. It [STRIKE]has[/STRIKE] turned out to be a wonderful idea! Some of us created paintings, [STRIKE]the[/STRIKE] others did some funny T-shirts and one girl even sewed a beautiful doll. The attendance surpassed our expectations. There is no need [STRIKE]in telling[/STRIKE] to tell you that the handmade things were the [STRIKE]ones[/STRIKE] most popular [things] [STRIKE]during[/STRIKE] at the auction.

Did I [STRIKE]do[/STRIKE] make some grammar mistakes?
Or maybe [STRIKE]have[/STRIKE] I [STRIKE]done[/STRIKE] made some mistakes in the letter. [STRIKE]?[/STRIKE]

As you can see, I'm not [STRIKE]so[/STRIKE] sure about using [STRIKE]this[/STRIKE] these tenses.
Could you [STRIKE]advise[/STRIKE] tell me [STRIKE]a way[/STRIKE] how to improve this particular aspect? I'm working with "Cambridge Advanced Grammar in Use". Although it's a great book, there aren't many examples per topic.
Thank you. [STRIKE][/STRIKE]

See my corrections above. Note that we don't put a space before a question mark, it's "make a mistake" (not "do a mistake") and we don't capitalise "you" unless it's the first word of a sentence or a quoted sentence.

Look at the corrections I made to the tenses. Can you see why the past simple was more appropriate?

 

[Tarheel]

past perfect vs simple past

You didn't just organize the auction. You actually had it/held it/put it on.

Dear Thomas,
I'm sorry about not writing to you for such a long time! At least I' ve got some great news to tell You. My class held a charity auction last week! I came up with the idea, and I was the auctioneer.

As already noted, stick with simple past. You don't need to use past perfect there.

 

[wlokiczyj]

Yes, thank you very much ! I'm sorry for making so many mistakes, especially in the punctuation,
I was in a hurry.

 

[wlokiczyj]

But actually, still I don't get the difference.
If the auction had it's time duration,
and its consequences, ( I'm writing the letter to tell about it, I collected the money). Why it's inappropriate to use the perfect form ?

 

[teechar]

But actually, still I don't get the difference.

My class and I organised a charity auction last week!
With time phrases such as "last week" the past simple is used.

During the preparations, we encountered quite a problem.
The preparation, auction and the "problem" are all finished without any further consequences.

It turned out to be a wonderful idea!
Again, the consequences of the "idea" are all in the past and not important anymore.

;-)

 

[Tarheel]

Consider the simple past the default setting for talking about something that has already happened. Unless there is a related event that makes it necessary there is no need to use past perfect.

https://www.usingenglish.com/glossary/search.php?q=past+perfect&d=1&gid=1