A Précis Over Length and a Literal Idiom
A 150-word unseen Tamil passage describes how a village tank was desilted over three weekends: forty volunteers, two tractors lent by the temple committee, and a closing line saying that the organisers, with no promise of rain, were மூக்கின் மேல் கோபம் with anyone who mentioned the weather. Two tasks follow: a précis in about 50 words and an English translation of that closing phrase. Student M's précis runs 78 words; it keeps all the numbers and the volunteer detail but states the main idea once, in its first line. Student N writes 44 words; she keeps the main idea and the point about local effort, drops every number, and translates the phrase as 'they were angry on the nose'. The scheme gives 3 marks for the précis and 2 for the translation, with no separate penalty column for length. The teacher must also decide what to write to N, who is the strongest translator in the class and will read the comment closely.
1. Mark both précis out of 3, and justify the marks against what a précis is for.
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M - 2/3. The central idea is present and correctly stated first, which is the hardest part. But 78 words against a 50-word target means more than half the summary is data: forty volunteers, two tractors, three weekends. Those are supporting details, and a précis that keeps all of them has not compressed - it has shortened. Length is not deducted separately; it is evidence of selection failure, and that is what the content mark records.
N - 3/3. At 44 words she is inside the target, she keeps the main idea and the point the passage is making about local effort, and she omits what can be omitted. Dropping the numbers is not a loss: a reader of the précis does not need the tractor count to understand the argument. Freeing 30 words by cutting detail is exactly the skill being tested.
Marker's note: the discriminator between the two is not length by itself but whether the retained words carry the argument. If N had dropped the main idea and kept the numbers, she would have scored 1 regardless of being under the limit. Record this reasoning on the moderation sheet, since the scheme gives no length column.
2. Award the translation out of 2, and write the comment you would give N.
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Mark: 1/2. 'Angry on the nose' transfers the image but not the meaning. The phrase means quick to take offence / short-tempered, and an English reader meeting the literal version learns only that something odd happened to a nose. The image mark is arguably earned; the meaning mark is not.
Comment to N:
Your précis is the best in the class - you cut the numbers and kept the argument, which is exactly right. The translation mark is the one to work on. When a phrase is an idiom, translate what it does, not what it says: மூக்கின் மேல் கோபம் = 'quick to lose their temper'. If you want to keep the picture, use a bracket: 'quick-tempered - literally, anger on the nose'. Two steps: meaning first, image second, never image alone.
Why this wording: N is the strongest translator in the class, so vague praise would be wasted and blunt criticism would be read as a downgrade of her whole paper. Naming the precise rule - idioms are translated by function - gives her something to apply to the next unseen passage, where idiom translation is a recurring item.
3. Both errors are predictable. Design a single lesson that addresses them, given that you have one period before the next practice paper.
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The two failure modes are opposite and can be taught together: M over-includes, N over-compresses and then translates word-for-word. Both come from treating the passage as a list of items rather than as an argument.
Lesson plan (one period):
- Deletion test (10 min). Give the passage with each sentence numbered. Ask: which single sentence, if removed, would damage the argument most? The class votes, then defends. This produces the main-idea sentence for the précis.
- Nominalise and compress (10 min). Take two sentences and rewrite them as one noun phrase. Model it once, then pairs do two more. This is the mechanical skill M lacks.
- Word-count discipline (5 min). Draft to 60 words, then cut to 50 by deleting numbers, names and adjectives in that order. Students see that length is a budget, not an accident.
- Idiom rule (10 min). Three idioms, including மூக்கின் மேல் கோபம். For each: write the functional meaning, then optionally the literal image in brackets. State the rule aloud - meaning first, image second.
- Exit ticket (5 min). A four-line passage: one-sentence précis plus one idiom translated.
Assessment link: tell the class the marks at stake - 3 for précis, 2 for translation - so the practice is visibly connected to the paper's scoring.