Composition: splitting 10 marks, a letter in mixed register, and a lost idiom
A 20-mark composition section: essay 10, letter 5, translation 5. Script A is a 240-word essay on పర్యావరణ కాలుష్యం - clear three-part structure and six statistics, but four spelling errors (including వాతావరణం and వాతావరణము used inconsistently) and two wrongly joined sandhis. Script B is a letter to the editor on road safety with correct format and a clear demand, but it mixes గౌరవనీయులైన with '&' and 'pls' twice. Script C is a translation of a six-sentence Telugu paragraph into English: the meaning survives, but ముఖం చాటేసుకున్నాడు is rendered as 'hid his face', and one sentence is merged with another. The department's marking scheme gives no split between content and language. Results must be published tomorrow and the subject committee meets for 40 minutes.
1. Propose a split for the 10-mark essay and apply it to Script A.
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Publish the split before marking; 10 undivided marks produce inconsistent scripts. A workable scale: relevance and content 4, organisation 2, language 3, presentation 1.
Script A takes 4 + 2 on the first two heads. On language, four spelling errors and two wrong sandhi joins are one class of error - orthography - so bundle them at −1.5, leaving 1.5; add 1 for presentation. Total 8.5.
Do not deduct the same error twice by scoring spelling under both 'language' and 'presentation'. The వాతావరణం/వాతావరణము inconsistency is a legitimate variant, not an error, but because the script uses both forms, count it once. Cap orthography deductions at 2 of the 3 language marks, so a well-argued essay cannot collapse on mechanics. File the scale so the next examiner applies the same one.
2. Script B's letter is formally correct but mixes register. Award the 5 marks.
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Divide the letter: format 2, content 2, register and language 1.
B has correct format and a clear, relevant demand, so 2 + 2 stands. The mixture of గౌరవనీయులైన with 'pls' and '&' is a register fault, not a format fault: deduct 0.5 from the last mark. Total 4.5. Do not zero the letter - the student has performed the communicative act the item tests, and the scheme has no separate 'appropriateness' head under which to punish it twice.
Write the reason on the script (సందర్భోచిత శైలి), so any appeal is answered by the script itself. Then add register to the department's letter checklist before the next assessment, since tomorrow's publication will surface the decision to the whole class.
3. Script C keeps the meaning but loses the idiom. How many of the 5 translation marks, and on what principle?
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Divide the translation: meaning 3, idiom and style 1, English grammar and sentence handling 1.
C preserves the content of all six sentences, so 3 stands. 'Hid his face' keeps the image but loses the idiom's force (evading the issue) - precisely what the idiom mark tests - so −1 there; the model answer should show a preferred rendering such as 'tried to avoid the issue'. Merging two sentences is not an error if the logical link survives: English does not owe Telugu its sentence boundaries, so the last mark stands unless the merge creates a run-on or drops a subject. Total 4.
Write the principle into the key: fidelity is judged at the level of meaning first, idiom second, sentence shape last. A translator who keeps the meaning and loses the idiom must score above one who keeps the idiom and loses the meaning.