The Ambiguous Pronoun in a Handover Note
A shift handover note reads: "The calibration on line 3 failed again. It was flagged last week but the technician said he had already checked it, so we left it. Now the supervisor wants it redone before the audit on Friday." Three things are referred to as "it": the calibration, the failure, and possibly the line. The incoming operator must decide what actually needs redoing and who was told what. The audit is in four days. The technician is off-site until Thursday. The supervisor's instruction is the only current directive.
1. Resolve what "it" refers to in the final sentence, and explain the grammatical reasoning.
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The final "it" most plausibly refers to the calibration on line 3, not the failure or the line.
Reasoning:
- Nearest compatible antecedent with a repeatable action. "Redone" implies a task that can be performed again. A calibration is a task; a failure is an event, and a line is a place. Only the calibration fits "redo."
- Discourse focus. The note opens with the calibration as subject; the middle sentences explain why it was not redone earlier. The supervisor's instruction reverses that decision.
- Semantic fit. "Left it" earlier also points to the calibration being left unchecked.
So the operator should treat the directive as: recalibrate line 3 before Friday. The failure itself is a symptom, not the object of the instruction.
2. The operator writes: "Technician confirmed the calibration was fine." Is that a valid reading of the note?
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No - it overstates what the note says.
The note reports the technician said he had already checked it. That is a report of a claim, not a confirmation of a result. The words "said he had already checked" leave open whether the check passed.
Also, the note says the calibration "failed again" after that claim, which undercuts any reading that the matter was settled.
A faithful paraphrase would be: "Technician reported having checked the calibration last week, but it failed again afterward." The operator's version converts reported speech into verified fact - a classic comprehension trap.