Plot summary in a character question: relevance versus volume
A 6-mark drama question in a WBCHSE HS Sanskrit mock reads: 'Show how the sakhī, the confidante, influences the action of the prescribed play.' The marking scheme gives 2 marks for stating her dramatic function, 2 for citing two specific moments, and 2 for explaining how those moments change the plot or reveal character. One candidate writes 190 words. About 150 words retell the hero's journey, the heroine's marriage, and the king's departure; only two sentences mention the sakhī: 'The sakhī was a good friend. She helped the heroine.' The answer is factually correct as a plot summary and has no spelling errors. The teacher must decide whether to reward the accurate plot knowledge, give a low mark for irrelevance, or split the difference. The candidate is a borderline student who tends to memorize plot and ignore the exact verb in the question.
1. Award a mark out of 6 and justify each component under the scheme.
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Award 1/6: 1/2 for function, because 'she helped' gestures at the sakhī's role but does not define it; 0/2 for specific moments, because none is cited; 0/2 for effect, because no consequence is traced. The accurate plot summary earns nothing under this scheme: the question asks 'show how she influences action', not 'retell the play'. If the local scheme has a separate 1-mark allowance for general relevance, the total becomes 2/6, but that must be recorded as a scheme allowance, not as credit for the plot summary.
2. Write feedback that names the exact verb in the question and tells the candidate what to do in the next answer.
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The verb is 'show', not 'retell'. Your first 150 words would earn marks in a plot question, but here they do not answer the question. Keep only material in which the sakhī acts. In the next answer, write two paragraphs: one on her function, one on two moments where her intervention changes what happens.
3. Rewrite the candidate's two sakhī sentences into a model topic sentence that could earn the first 2 marks without inventing incidents.
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A defensible topic sentence: 'The sakhī is the play's agent of communication: she converts the heroine's private feeling into information that other characters can act on, and she repeatedly checks the hero's impulse by reminding him of dharma.' This defines a function and implies dramatic effect without narrating events that the candidate has not cited.