Separating grammar errors from style choices in a school notice
A school's Eco Club has drafted a notice for a tree-planting drive:
'All the students are informed that our club is organising a tree plantation programme on 5 August at 9 a.m. The saplings will be distribute by the forest officer. Interested students should give their names to the class leaders until 2 August. Please bring your own water bottle and wear a cap, because it is too hot. Informations about the programme will be given by the class teacher. Students who will be absent must inform previously.'
The teacher has circled eight points and asks the class to sort them into errors of grammar, errors of vocabulary or word formation, and matters of style or register only. Marks are given for the first two categories only. She allows two acceptable corrections per item wherever usage permits, and she warns that a notice has a word limit, so not every improvement is worth making.
1. Classify four circled points - 'will be distribute', 'until 2 August', 'because it is too hot', and 'Informations' - and give the rule behind each.
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| Point | Category | Rule and repair |
|---|---|---|
| 'will be distribute' | Grammar | A passive needs be + past participle. Repair: 'will be distributed'. |
| 'until 2 August' | Usage, not hard grammar | 'Until' marks how long an action continues; a submission deadline needs 'by' or 'on or before'. Both 'by 2 August' and 'on or before 2 August' are acceptable. Because two forms are allowed and the meaning is recoverable, treat this as a usage point rather than a decisive error. |
| 'because it is too hot' | Style/register only | The sentence is grammatical. 'Too hot' is conversational and vague for a notice; 'as the weather is hot' is neater. Under the teacher's scheme this earns no error mark - a student who rewrites it should say it is a style improvement, not a correction. |
| 'Informations' | Vocabulary/word formation | 'Information' is uncountable and has no plural. Repair: 'Information about the programme will be given by the class teacher.' |
The sorting matters because students lose marks by over-correcting: changing grammatical sentences to sound formal is not editing. Only the first and fourth are errors in the strict sense.
2. One student wants to change 'give their names' to 'submit their names', and 'previously' to 'in advance'. Decide whether these are errors, and say what a good answer should claim.
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Neither is an error; both are defensible improvements, and the answer should say so plainly.
- 'Give their names' is standard school-notice English and is perfectly clear. 'Submit their names' is more formal but adds nothing in meaning, and it makes the notice slightly stiffer. If a student changes it, the justification is register, not correctness.
- 'Previously' means 'at an earlier time' - for example, 'she had previously worked here'. What the notice means is 'before the event', i.e. 'in advance'. 'Previously' is loose here rather than ungrammatical, and 'in advance' is the idiomatic partner of 'inform'. This is the stronger of the two suggestions, but it is still a collocation point, not a grammar error.
The marking consequence: a student who labels either of these a grammar mistake has misidentified the problem, and should lose the classification mark even if the rewritten notice reads well. A student who writes 'not an error, but more formal/idiomatic' should gain credit. This is the discrimination the question is testing - fluency is not the same as correctness.
3. Rewrite the notice in no more than 50 words, keeping every fact, and state what you dropped and why.
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Model notice (44 words): 'NOTICE - Tree Plantation Drive. The Eco Club will plant saplings on 5 August at 9 a.m.; the Forest Officer will distribute them. Interested students should give their names to their class leaders by 2 August and bring a water bottle and a cap. - Secretary, Eco Club.'
What was dropped, and the reason:
- 'All the students are informed that' - a formulaic opener. A notice is addressed to readers already looking at it; the phrase carries no fact.
- 'Information about the programme will be given by the class teacher' - redundant, since the notice itself is that information. Cutting it is a content decision, so check first that no mark scheme fact depends on it.
- 'Because it is too hot' - a reason, not an instruction; and it was the weakest sentence in the draft.
What was kept: every date, time, responsible person and instruction, plus 'by 2 August' in place of 'until'. The compression works because notice language lives in noun phrases and imperatives, not in full explanatory sentences. The count also matters: at 44 words the rewrite leaves room for one short heading and a signature line, which real notices need.