The Editing Key: When a Student 'Corrects' a Correct Line
While marking a Class 10 editing exercise, Mr. Sharma finds six lines and an answer key that flags errors in lines (ii), (iv) and (vi) only; lines (i), (iii) and (v) are correct. The lines read: (i) Each of the five houses has a prefect. (ii) The news about the results are surprising. (iii) The jury were divided in their opinion. (iv) Neither the captain nor the players was present at the drill. (v) Twenty rupees is all I have. (vi) One of the boys were selected for the state team. A student, Nisha, has corrected line (iii) to 'The jury was divided' and line (v) to 'Twenty rupees are all I have', and has left line (iv) unchanged. Mr. Sharma has ten minutes to give feedback to 40 scripts and must decide whether Nisha's changes are errors, acceptable variants, or wrong answers.
1. Evaluate Nisha's two changes. Which is defensible, which is not, and why?
Read the worked answer
Nisha's jury change is defensible; her rupees change is not.
- 'The jury were divided in their opinion' is already correct. Jury is a collective noun. When the group acts as one unit, it takes a singular verb ('the jury has reached a verdict'). When the members are shown disagreeing with one another, British usage - the variety followed in Indian school English - allows and often prefers the plural: 'were divided in their opinion'. The phrase in their opinion reinforces the plural idea. Nisha has 'corrected' a correct line, so she should not gain a mark; whether she loses one depends on the negative-marking rule, which must be stated on the paper.
- 'Twenty rupees are all I have' is wrong. Amounts of money, periods of time and distances are treated as a single quantity: 'Twenty rupees is all I have', 'Ten kilometres is a long walk'. The plural noun inside the phrase does not control the verb; the notion of one sum does.
Teaching point: agreement is sometimes notional, not mechanical. Ask 'one unit or several members?' before applying the singular/plural label. The same test explains 'The committee has decided' versus 'The committee were arguing among themselves'.
2. Nisha left line (iv) unchanged. Is that correct? Explain the rule and how you would record her three decisions separately.
Read the worked answer
No - leaving line (iv) unchanged means she missed a real error.
- The line reads 'Neither the captain nor the players was present at the drill.' With neither … nor, the verb agrees with the subject nearer to it. The nearer subject is players, plural, so the verb must be were. The error is in the original, and the key flags line (iv); Nisha has not corrected it.
- Her instinct may have been that neither is singular. That is true only when both alternatives are singular: 'Neither the captain nor the coach was present.' The proximity rule overrides the singular pull of neither.
- Marking decision: she loses the mark for line (iv). She does not lose a mark for line (iii), because she wrote an acceptable variant rather than an error - but she cannot earn a mark for changing a line that was already correct. She loses line (v) because her version is ungrammatical.
- Board summary: each of / one of / neither of + plural noun takes a singular verb; neither … nor and either … or follow the nearer subject; collective nouns follow the unit-versus-members test; sums of money take a singular verb.