Two and a Half out of Five: Marking a Leave Application Under Time Pressure
An 18-student section writes a 5-mark application for sick leave in a half-period test. The marking scheme is format 2, content 2, language 1. Rohit's letter reads: 'Respected Sir/Madam, I am a student of class 10. I am suffering from fever since three days. kindly grant me leave for two days. Yours faithfully, Rohit.' It has no date, no sender's address and no subject line. A second student, Neha, writes 'Dear Sir' and closes with 'Yours sincerely'; otherwise her letter is complete and correct. The coordinator wants all scripts returned with marks and brief comments by tomorrow, and warns that students compare marks closely. You have 25 minutes to mark the set.
1. Award Rohit a mark out of 5 with a breakdown, justifying each deduction.
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Rohit: 2.5 out of 5.
- Format: 0.5 / 2. No sender's address, no date, no subject. He does have a salutation, a body and a complimentary close, which is worth something, but an application without a date and address is incomplete as a formal document.
- Content: 1.5 / 2. The reason (fever) and the duration (two days) are both stated, which is the core of the task. He loses half a mark because he gives no dates - 'two days' from when? - and does not say what he will do about missed work.
- Language: 0.5 / 1. 'Since three days' should be 'for three days'; 'class 10' should be 'Class 10'; 'kindly' is not capitalised after a full stop. The sentences are clear, but three mechanical errors in five lines is too many for full language marks.
Record the breakdown on the script so the mark is auditable when students compare. A bare '2.5' invites the question 'why?', and you will not have time to answer it 18 times tomorrow.
2. Rank the corrections you would ask Rohit to make, and explain why the top one has the highest return in the board exam.
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Priority order:
- Add date, sender's address and subject line. This is the highest-return correction because format is marked mechanically and is the same for every application, letter and report in the paper. A student who learns one template gains marks on every writing question. It is also learnable in ten minutes.
- Fix 'since three days' → 'for three days'. This is a recurring grammar error that appears in letters, paragraphs and reported speech. It is a small rule with wide reach: since + point in time, for + duration.
- Capitalisation and register ('Class 10', 'Kindly'). These are polish errors. They matter, but they cost fractions of a mark and can be handled by a proofreading habit rather than a lesson.
The ranking reflects return on teaching time, not the size of the error. Format errors are cheap to fix and expensive to keep; polish errors are the reverse.
3. Explain the salutation–close pairing rule for Neha's 'Dear Sir / Yours sincerely' and give a 30-second drill to fix it.
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The rule: the complimentary close must match the salutation's level of formality. 'Dear Sir/Madam' is addressed to someone whose name you do not know, so it takes 'Yours faithfully'. 'Dear Sir' with a known name, or 'Dear Mr Sharma', takes 'Yours sincerely'. 'Respected Sir/Madam' takes 'Yours faithfully'. The pairing is conventional rather than logical: faithfully marks distance, sincerely marks acquaintance.
Neha's letter: one mark lost under format, not content. She also writes 'Dear Sir' without a name, so 'Yours faithfully' is the correct close.
30-second drill: write four salutations on the board - 'Dear Sir/Madam', 'Dear Sir', 'Dear Mr Jain', 'Respected Madam' - and have students hold up one finger for faithfully and two for sincerely. Repeat twice, then have them write the four pairs from memory. Keep it oral and fast so it becomes a reflex, not a rule to be recalled under exam pressure.