Editing Task: Genuine Errors and Overcorrections
In an editing task, students receive a short passage with four errors and are told to correct only what is ungrammatical: 'Last week our school organise a trip to Santiniketan. We were very exciting. The teacher told us to bring our own lunch and not to bring any electronic gadgets. We reached there in 10 a.m. and visited the museum. It was a memorable day, isn't it?' The marking scheme gives 1 mark for each genuine correction. One student changes organise to organised, exciting to excited, in to at, and isn't it to wasn't it. The student also changes 'not to bring any electronic gadgets' to 'not to bring some electronic gadgets' and rewrites 'told us to bring' as 'told us that we should bring'. The teacher must decide whether the two extra changes should be marked as errors or treated as overcorrections.
1. Identify the four genuine errors and evaluate all six student changes. Which should receive credit, and how should the two extra changes be handled?
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The four genuine errors are:
- 'our school organise' → 'our school organised' (past tense needed).
- 'We were very exciting' → 'We were very excited' (the students felt excitement; 'exciting' describes the cause).
- 'in 10 a.m.' → 'at 10 a.m.' (clock time takes 'at').
- 'isn't it?' → 'wasn't it?' (the tag must match the past-tense statement 'It was').
The student's first four changes are all genuine corrections and should receive 4/4.
The two extra changes should not receive credit. 'Not to bring any electronic gadgets' is standard English: 'any' is the normal determiner in a negative context. Changing it to 'some' produces 'not to bring some electronic gadgets', which suggests a particular subset of gadgets and is not the intended meaning. 'Told us to bring' is already grammatical; 'told us that we should bring' is also grammatical, but it is a stylistic rewrite, not a correction. In an editing task, marks are for repairing errors, not for improving correct structures. If the rubric penalises unnecessary changes, the teacher should apply that penalty consistently; otherwise, simply do not award credit for the extras.
2. The student argues that 'any' sounds negative, so 'some' must be better after 'not'. Explain the grammatical principle with this example, and state what change, if any, is needed.
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The student has noticed a real pattern but reversed the conclusion. 'Any' is a negative-polarity item: it is typically used in negative clauses, questions, and conditional clauses - 'We did not bring any gadgets'; 'Did you bring any gadgets?'; 'If you bring any gadgets...'. In a negative sentence, 'not ... any' is the standard pattern.
'Some' is more usual in affirmative contexts - 'We brought some gadgets' - or in negative contexts with a special contrastive meaning, such as 'I did not bring some of the gadgets' (i.e. a particular subset was left behind). That is not what the passage means. The intended meaning is 'zero electronic gadgets', so 'not to bring any electronic gadgets' is correct.
Needed change: none. The teacher should praise the student for noticing the polarity pattern but correct the inference: 'any' is not an error after 'not'; it is the expected form.
3. Write a 40–60 word marking note advising the student how to decide when a change is required in an editing task.
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Check tense, subject–verb agreement, prepositions, question tags, and word class first. Change a form only when the original is ungrammatical in standard English; do not rewrite correct structures. In negatives, 'any' is usually correct, so leave it. (42 words)