Five Numbered Blanks: Finding the Head of the Subject
Five numbered items in a draft paragraph are set for editing:
The school library, which houses over 9,000 titles, (1) were reopened last Monday. Neither the librarian nor the volunteers (2) was informed about the new timings. One of the racks (3) have been damaged. The students who (4) visits the library daily have complained that the reading room is too small. Mr Nair, along with two teachers, (5) are preparing a proposal for more space.
A student's sheet shows: (1) unchanged, with the note 'titles is plural'; (2) changed to 'were'; (3) unchanged, with the note 'racks is plural'; (4) changed to 'visit'; (5) changed to 'is'. He has also rewritten 'over 9,000' as 'more than 9,000' and 'is too small' as 'was too small'. He scores 3 out of 5. The teacher says his three marks are correct but that two of his decisions show one underlying mistake.
1. Identify which items genuinely need correction, give the rule for each, and explain the single mistake behind his two errors.
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All five need correction; he has two wrong.
- (1) The subject is 'The school library'. 'Which houses over 9,000 titles' is a relative clause and cannot supply the verb. → was reopened.
- (2) With 'neither … nor', the verb agrees with the nearer subject, 'the volunteers'. → were informed. He is right here; the exam expects the proximity rule, even though many speakers say 'was'.
- (3) 'One of the racks' - the head is 'One', so → has been damaged. 'Racks' sits inside a prepositional phrase.
- (4) The relative clause refers to 'the students' → who visit.
- (5) 'Along with two teachers' is parenthetical, not a coordinator like 'and' → is preparing.
His single mistake: in (1) and (3) he let the nearest plural noun choose the verb instead of finding the head of the subject. Underline the head first, then agree.
2. Evaluate his two unasked-for changes - 'more than 9,000' and 'was too small'. What principle should guide a candidate in an editing task?
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Both are unnecessary, and the second is wrong.
- 'more than 9,000' for 'over 9,000' is a stylistic preference, not a correction. The original is grammatical; the instruction was to edit errors. A rewrite spends time and risks the examiner reading it as a failure to see that the original was already correct.
- 'was too small' alters meaning. The complaint is reported, but backshift is optional when the statement remains true, and the room is still small. The original correctly presents an ongoing condition; the 'correction' quietly turns a current problem into a past one.
Principle: an editing task asks whether a form is wrong, not whether it could be better. Before changing anything, ask two questions - is the original ungrammatical, and does my version preserve the meaning? If the first answer is no, leave the line alone.
3. Rewrite sentence (5) so that a plural verb is correct, without changing the meaning. Explain what your rewrite proves about the rule.
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A plural verb becomes possible only by changing which element is the subject.
- 'Two teachers, as well as Mr Nair, are preparing a proposal.' The aside now follows a plural head, so 'are' is correct, and the substance is unchanged; only the emphasis shifts.
- 'Mr Nair and two teachers are preparing…' is also grammatical, but 'and' makes a compound subject, whereas a writer who chose 'along with' was deliberately backgrounding the teachers - so this is a different sentence, not a correction.
- 'Mr Nair, along with two teachers, are preparing' is not an option at all.
What the rewrite proves: the verb follows the head of the subject, never a noun that merely appears nearby. Parenthetical phrases introduced by 'along with', 'as well as' or 'together with' do not make a subject plural, however many people they mention.