Diagnosing grammar against register in an application letter
Anu of Plus Two Commerce, Govt HSS, Thrissur, drafts a covering letter for the post of library assistant at the District Public Library, advertised in a newspaper on 5 June. The closing date is 20 June. Her draft reads: 'I am writing to apply for the post of library assistant which was advertised in your newspaper on 5 June. I am completed my B.A. English in 2023 and I am working as a library assistant in a school since then. I have good knowledge in cataloguing and I am interested to learn digital archiving. If I am given an opportunity, I will be obliged. I am looking forward for your reply.' Her teacher marks errors in tense, aspect, preposition and fixed expression, but Anu argues that the letter 'sounds fine' and that marks should not be cut for style. The teacher has one period to show her the difference between a grammatical error and a register problem before she posts the letter.
1. Identify four errors, correct them, and name the area each belongs to.
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- 'I am completed my B.A.' → 'I have completed my B.A.' Area: tense/aspect - present perfect for a past action with present relevance; the auxiliary 'am' cannot take a past participle.
- 'I am working... since then' → 'I have been working... since 2023.' Area: aspect with 'since' - present perfect continuous for an activity continuing from a past point.
- 'good knowledge in cataloguing' → 'good knowledge of cataloguing'. Area: preposition collocation with 'knowledge'.
- 'I will be obliged' → 'I would be grateful'. Area: fixed politeness formula plus conditional - 'will be obliged' states a future obligation rather than thanking in advance.
- 'looking forward for' → 'looking forward to' (preposition governed by the phrasal verb).
Note that 'the post of library assistant which was advertised' is acceptable; students often 'correct' it to 'that' unnecessarily, and a marker should not penalise either.
2. Anu says the letter 'sounds fine'. Which errors would an experienced reader register as incompetence rather than as a slip, and why is the distinction worth teaching?
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The tense errors (1 and 2) read as slips: readers repair them automatically because the meaning survives. The collocation and formula errors (3, 4, 5) read differently. 'Knowledge in', 'looking forward for' and 'will be obliged' are memorised professional formulas; a reader in a library office uses them daily and notices their failure immediately. The meaning may survive, but the impression of someone who has not read the register does not.
Why teach it: grammar is rule-governed and can be checked against a rule; collocation and register are conventional and can only be checked against use. Anu needs both checks, in that order. A useful exercise is to have her read the letter aloud and mark, separately, places where a rule is broken and places where the phrase is not the one people actually write.
3. Explain to Anu why 'since then' forces a perfect form, using her own sentence.
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'Since' names a starting point and asserts that the situation runs from that point to now. The present simple cannot carry that span: 'I am working there since 2023' presents the job as a bare present fact and leaves 'since' with nothing to attach to. The form must encode duration - either 'I have been working as a library assistant since 2023' (activity continuing) or 'I have worked there since 2023' (state continuing to now, with the focus on the resulting situation).
Use her sentence as the test: remove 'since then' and 'I am working as a library assistant' is perfectly good. That shows the error is created by the time expression, not by the verb. Give her the rule in one line: since/for + present simple = error; since/for + perfect = normal. Ask her to find the same pattern in the advertisement itself, which likely says 'candidates who have worked in a library'.