Correcting and Rewriting a Traffic Diversion Notice
A trainee constable at a city traffic police station has drafted a public notice about a procession. It reads: "The attention of general public is invited that due to Ganesh procession, the road between Gandhi Statue and Clock Tower will be close for all vehicles on 14th September from 4 pm to 11 pm. Public are requested to co-operate with the police and to not parking their vehicles on the said road. Anybody violating the orders will be punished severely. For any enquiry, the public can contact on the traffic control room." The inspector says the notice will be read by about 40,000 people, including visitors who do not read Telugu, and that it will be quoted in the newspapers. He wants the notice corrected, cut to 60 words, and a short oral announcement prepared for a van that will pass a mosque and a church before reaching the temple street.
1. Identify five errors in the draft, correct each one, and give the grammar or usage reason for the correction. Also name one fact that is missing altogether.
Read the worked answer
1. "The attention of general public is invited" → "The attention of the general public is invited" (or, better, "The public are informed"). The countable noun needs the article the.
2. "will be close" → "will be closed". The passive requires the past participle, not the base form.
3. "on 14th September" → "on 14 September". With the month written after the day, standard English uses the cardinal number without -th; "the 14th of September" is also correct, but "14th September" is not.
4. "to not parking their vehicles" → "not to park their vehicles". The verb after requested must be a to-infinitive; parking is a gerund and cannot follow to.
5. "will be punished severely" → "will be liable to action under the Motor Vehicles Act" (or "will be prosecuted as per law"). This is both a register and an accuracy problem: the police do not impose punishment, a court does, and "severely" is vague and inflammatory in a document that newspapers will quote.
Also wrong: "contact on the traffic control room" → "contact the traffic control room" (no preposition before the object).
Missing fact: the alternative route. A diversion notice that does not name the route to be used is of no practical use to a driver.
2. Rewrite the notice as a public notice of not more than 60 words, keeping every essential fact and naming a diversion route.
Read the worked answer
PUBLIC NOTICE - TRAFFIC DIVERSION, 14 SEPTEMBER
The public are informed that the road between Gandhi Statue and Clock Tower will be closed to all vehicles from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. on 14 September for the Ganesh procession. Vehicles should use the Station Road–Museum Road route. Parking on the closed stretch is prohibited. Violators will be liable to action under the Motor Vehicles Act. Enquiries: Traffic Control Room.
Word count: 62 - trim "for the Ganesh procession" to "for a procession" or drop the heading to come inside 60. Every element the inspector asked for is present: what is closed, to whom, when, why, the alternative route, the parking rule, the consequence, and the contact. The heading is set in capitals and the closing time is repeated so that a reader who scans only the first line and the last line still gets the essentials.
3. Draft the one-line oral announcement for the van and explain the tone choices you made for a route that passes a mosque and a church before reaching the temple street.
Read the worked answer
Announcement (English): "The road between Gandhi Statue and Clock Tower will be closed to all vehicles from 4 p.m. to 11 p.m. today for a procession. Please use the Station Road and Museum Road route. Parking on that road is prohibited. This is a traffic arrangement for everyone's safety, and all places of worship on the route remain open."
Telugu version: the same sentences, in the same order, broadcast alternately.
Tone choices and their reasons
- "A procession", not "the Ganesh procession of the Hindu community". The notice is a traffic order; naming one community invites the listeners to hear it as a religious instruction, and the van passes a mosque and a church before reaching the temple street.
- "All places of worship on the route remain open" pre-empts a rumour that worship has been restricted. Rumours of that kind, not the traffic, cause trouble.
- "Traffic arrangement for everyone's safety" frames the order as administrative and applies it equally to all road users.
- No "severe punishment" language. A calm, factual voice from a moving van is heard by people who are already delayed; a threatening tone creates anger, not compliance.
- Two languages and a fixed sentence order, so that a non-Telugu visitor hears the same three facts - where, when, which route - without waiting through the whole announcement.
- No direction to any place of worship, so that the police cannot be accused of favouring or obstructing any group.