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I read the following script in a TOEIC Speaking book:

“Question.
Do you agree or disagree with the following statement?
The best employees are those who complete their work in the shortest amount of time.
Give reasons and examples to support your answer.

Answer.
I don’t agree with the idea that the best employees are those who complete their work in the shortest amount of time, because usually, when people complete their tasks in the shortest amount of time, they tend to skip details. The end result is not what is expected from that task. For example, when I finish something too soon, I go back to take a second look and see if I missed a detail or two.”

I paraphrased the boldface sentence into the following:
Paraphrase A. When you finish your work by skipping details, the work cannot be complete. or
Paraphrase B. The result that you get by skipping details is often incomplete.

and have two questions:
Question #1. What do you think of my paraphrases? Do I understand the boldface sentence correctly?
Question #2. If you rewrote the boldface sentence, how would you write?

Thanks in advance.

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    The bolded sentence does not make good sense to me, so it is difficult to paraphrase. The phrase "from that task" is odd, to my ear.
    – TimR
    Commented Apr 16, 2016 at 10:16

2 Answers 2

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Your paraphrase A is more restrictive than the original, and that could be an issue, depending on the writer's original intent.

The original says:

The end result is not what is expected.

while your paraphrase says, essentially:

The work is incomplete.

The problem is this: there other ways something might not meet expectations besides being incomplete.

For example, if I'm rushing to write an article, the article may not have been properly proofread, so perhaps it still contains awkward sentences, or it's not as well-organized as it should be. If I'm baking cookies, and I don't take the time to carefully measure the ingredients, the cookies might end up with an undesired texture. And if I'm hastily assembling a piece of furniture, I might strip the threads of a screw, or scratch the wood. These are quality problems, not completeness problems.

Incompleteness could be a quality problem, too, but it's only one of many ways that an end result might not be what is expected.

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You are correct.It means:

The results accomplished are not satisfactory.

We all know that without paying attention to detail,we can not produce high quality work and therefore can not achieve the desired or intended results (the results desired by the organization). In other words,this approach (accomplishing a large amount of work within a short amount of time) alone does not necessarily meet the needs of an organization.

My suggestion:It would be better to incorporate managing time and being detailed together.

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