We consider a model equation from [14] that captures important properties of the water wave equation. We give a new proof of the fact that wave packet solutions of this equation are approximated by the nonlinear Schrodinger equation. This proof both simplifies and strengthens the results of [14] so that the approximation holds for the full interval of existence of the approximate NLS solution rather than just a subinterval. Furthermore, the proof avoids the problems associated with inverting the normal form transform in [14] by working with a modified energy functional motivated by [1] and [8].
