Annual Report Paragraph: Minimal Edits Under a Board Deadline
You are the editorial assistant at a regional transport authority, preparing the 40-page annual report for the board. The draft paragraph below was written by the operations team and must be corrected before typesetting; the board chair has already said she will read the report 'as a document, not as a draft'.
'Neither the depot supervisors nor the duty manager were informed of the timetable change. Having reviewed the revised schedule, the delays were found to be caused by a shortage of drivers. The new depot, which opened in March, it handles 120 departures a day. A number of complaints was received in April, and passengers were offered vouchers, however most refused them. None of the revised timetables were displayed at the stops.'
You may make minimal edits or rewrite, but you cannot add facts, and the operations team has veto over any change to figures.
1. Identify the four faults in the paragraph and give a corrected version of each affected sentence, naming the fault.
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- Dangling modifier - 'Having reviewed the revised schedule, the delays were found…' says the delays reviewed the schedule. Fix by naming the reviewer: 'Having reviewed the revised schedule, we found that the delays were caused by a shortage of drivers.'
- Resumptive pronoun / double subject - 'The new depot, which opened in March, it handles 120 departures a day.' The relative clause already occupies the subject slot; drop it: 'The new depot, which opened in March, handles 120 departures a day.'
- Concord with 'a number of' - 'A number of complaints was received' should be 'A number of complaints were received' (see the next task).
- Comma splice - '…passengers were offered vouchers, however most refused them.' However is a conjunctive adverb, not a conjunction. Fix: '…were offered vouchers; however, most refused them.' or '…vouchers, but most refused them.'
Note on the first sentence: 'Neither the depot supervisors nor the duty manager were informed' is defensible (proximity to the singular manager allows was), but were is standard in British usage and needs no change - resist the urge to edit what is not wrong.
2. The operations team argues that 'a number of complaints was received' is correct because 'number' is singular. Decide the point and justify it with a test an editor can apply quickly.
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The team is wrong, but the confusion is understandable.
- 'A number of + plural noun' is a quantifier meaning 'several'; the concord is plural: A number of complaints were received.
- 'The number of + plural noun' is a head noun meaning 'the count'; the concord is singular: The number of complaints was higher in April.
- The test: substitute several or many. 'Several complaints was received' is plainly wrong, so the plural is required. Substitute the total: 'The total of complaints was higher' is singular, confirming the second pattern.
- Why it matters here: the report also gives counts, and a reader who sees the authority mishandle concord in a sentence about complaints will trust the complaints figures less. But do not 'fix' it by rewriting to 'Complaints were received' - that quietly deletes the hedge that the figure is a subset, which is a change of meaning the team has not authorised.
3. Decide whether 'None of the revised timetables were displayed at the stops' should be changed, bearing in mind the minimal-edit instruction.
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Leave it. None takes either singular or plural concord. The plural is common and defensible when the focus is on the individual items ('none of the timetables were displayed' = not one of them was displayed), and the singular was is the more conservative formal choice. Neither is an error.
- Editorial principle: the instruction is minimal edits and the team has veto. Change only what is demonstrably wrong (the dangling modifier, the resumptive it, the 'a number of' concord, the comma splice). Altering defensible variants creates friction and implies the original was careless.
- Consistency check: if the report elsewhere uses none … was repeatedly, match house style; that is a style decision, made once and applied throughout, not a correction.
- What would justify a change: if the surrounding sentence requires a singular contrast ('None of the timetables was displayed, although all of them had been printed'), the singular sharpens the antithesis. Absent such pressure, leave it.