Editing a College Notice: Grammar, Ambiguity and Register
The following draft notice is to be pasted on a college noticeboard:
NOTICE The internal examination which was schedule on 12 March has been postpone to 19 March due to unavoidable circumstances. All the students are hereby informed to note that the same will be held in the same venue. Students whom have not collected hall tickets should collect it from the office before 18 March. No student will be allowed to enter the examination hall without hall ticket. By order of the Principal.
The examination is for second-year students, the venue is the main examination hall, and the original timing was 10 a.m. The office clerk says the notice 'sounds official enough'. The principal wants a short, clear notice that preserves all dates and consequences but removes grammatical errors and ambiguity.
1. Identify four distinct errors of grammar or usage in the draft and correct each. Do not count the vague phrase 'due to unavoidable circumstances' as one of the four.
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Four distinct errors:
- 'was schedule' → 'was scheduled'. The passive needs the past participle, not the base form.
- 'has been postpone' → 'has been postponed'. The present perfect passive also requires the past participle.
- 'Students whom have' → 'Students who have'. 'Who' is the subject of 'have'; 'whom' is an object form.
- 'collect it' → 'collect them' (or 'collect their hall tickets'). The antecedent is plural 'hall tickets', so the pronoun must be plural.
A fifth issue is the redundant and vague phrase 'hereby informed to note', which can simply be 'are informed'. Also, 'the same' is ambiguous: it could mean the examination, the date or the venue. These are usage/clarity problems rather than the four counted errors.
2. Rewrite the notice in 60–80 words, keeping all dates and consequences but removing ambiguity and redundancy.
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NOTICE
The internal examination scheduled for 12 March at 10 a.m. has been postponed to 19 March at 10 a.m. It will be held in the main examination hall. Students who have not collected their hall tickets must collect them from the office by 18 March. No student will be allowed to enter the examination hall without a hall ticket.
By order of the Principal.
This is about 65 words. It names the examination, the old and new dates, the time, the venue and the deadline; it replaces 'the same' with explicit nouns and 'it' with 'them'. The only deliberate omission is the vague reason.
3. Should the final notice keep the phrase 'due to unavoidable circumstances'? Argue for or against, considering the purpose of an official notice.
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An official notice exists to give readers accurate, actionable information and to avoid disputes. 'Due to unavoidable circumstances' supplies neither a fact nor an instruction; it is a stock phrase that can make the institution sound evasive. If the reason is genuinely confidential or not yet settled, it is better to omit the reason than to use a vague formula. If a reason must be given, a brief neutral statement such as 'due to administrative reasons' is clearer, though still general.
A case for keeping it is that some institutions prefer not to disclose internal scheduling problems. But that preference should not come at the cost of clarity. The notice already states the new date, time, venue and hall-ticket rule, so the reason is not essential. Recommendation: omit the phrase and keep the notice factual.