Editing a Magazine Paragraph: Rules, Usage and Consistency
Mr. Anil is editing a student's article for the school magazine. The paragraph reads: 'One of the most pressing issue before our city is waste management. The government have decided to start a segregation campaign. Neither the teachers nor the principal were available for comment. The mayor said that the campaign will begin next Monday.' The student's corrected version changes 'issue' to 'issues', 'have' to 'has', 'were' to 'was', and 'will' to 'would'. Mr. Anil must decide which corrections to accept, which to negotiate and which to leave alone. The magazine's style guide follows standard British usage but allows either singular or plural agreement with collective nouns when consistency is maintained. The student argues that 'government' can take 'have' because it is a group of people.
1. Evaluate each of the four edits. Say whether you would accept, reject or negotiate it, and explain the grammatical reasoning.
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- issue → issues: accept. The pattern is 'one of the + plural noun'. The headword is 'one', so the verb remains singular ('is'), but the noun after 'of' is plural.
- have → has: negotiate, do not simply impose. British usage permits 'government have' when the body is seen as a group of people, and the style guide allows either if consistent. The original is not ungrammatical; it is a style choice. The student's argument is defensible.
- were → was: accept. With 'neither ... nor', the verb agrees with the nearer subject, 'principal'. 'Were' would require a plural nearer subject.
- will → would: negotiate. Backshift is the safer default in reported speech, but if next Monday is still in the future, 'will' is defensible. The sentence is not automatically wrong. Mr. Anil should ask whether the magazine wants strict backshift or present relevance.
2. The student asks for a rule he can apply to 'one of the + plural noun'. Give a concise explanation and one counterexample that would confuse him if you oversimplified.
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The noun after 'of' is plural, but the verb agrees with 'one': 'One of the issues is waste management', not 'are'. The trap is the relative clause. In 'He is one of the boys who were selected', the relative pronoun 'who' refers to 'boys', so the plural verb is correct. If you teach only 'one = singular', that sentence will look wrong. Teach the pattern by asking what the verb's actual subject is, not by counting nouns in the sentence.
3. Rewrite the paragraph so that it is consistent in register and agreement. Then state one place where you deliberately chose one acceptable form over another.
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'One of the most pressing issues before our city is waste management. The government has decided to start a segregation campaign. Neither the teachers nor the principal was available for comment. The mayor said that the campaign would begin next Monday.'
I chose 'has' rather than 'have' for consistency with the singular 'government' as an institution, and 'would' rather than 'will' for consistent backshift in reported speech. Neither choice is the only possible English, but each is defensible and, more importantly, consistent with the other choices in the paragraph.