The Editorial Mark-Up
The editor of a school paper marks five sentences in a draft editorial. (1) "Each of the six section representatives have submitted their report." (2) "Neither the treasurer nor the secretary were present during the audit." (3) "The committee, after reviewing the proposals, have decided to postpone the vote." (4) "Between you and I, the budget is smaller than we expected." (5) "The new guidelines, which was approved last week, requires every organization to file a monthly summary." The editor tells the writer: "Some of these are outright errors; one is a matter of variety rather than error. Fix what is broken, and defend what is not broken."
1. For each of the five sentences, state whether it contains an error, and give the corrected version where one is needed.
Read the worked answer
(1) Error. The subject is Each, which is singular; of the six section representatives is only a prepositional phrase and cannot change the number. → "Each of the six section representatives has submitted his or her report." (Or recast: "All six representatives have submitted their reports.")
(2) Error. With neither … nor, the verb agrees with the nearer subject, the secretary (singular). → "Neither the treasurer nor the secretary was present during the audit."
(3) Not an error - a variety issue. Committee is a collective noun. American usage takes the singular (has decided); British usage allows the plural when the members are thought of individually. Since the paper follows American conventions elsewhere, has is the house-consistent choice, but have is defensible.
(4) Error. Between is a preposition, so the pronoun must be in the object case. → "Between you and me …"
(5) Error, two of them. Guidelines is plural, so both verbs must be plural: → "The new guidelines, which were approved last week, require every organization to file a monthly summary."
2. The writer argues that sentence (4) should stay as "between you and I" because "I" sounds more formal. Give a test that settles the question without appealing to how it sounds.
Read the worked answer
Use the drop-the-other-person test: delete the second party and read what is left.
- "Between you and I" → "Between I" - impossible.
- "Between you and me" → "Between me" - fine.
The test works because between is a preposition and prepositions take the object form (me, him, her, us, them). Adding a second person does not change the case of the pronoun; it only hides the error inside a longer phrase.
The "formality" argument confuses register with case. I is not more formal than me; it is simply the subject form, and it is wrong here no matter how serious the sentence sounds. The same test catches "for my brother and I" (→ "for I" ✘).
Verdict: the writer is wrong; keep "between you and me."
3. In sentence (5), a classmate insists the real mistake is using "which" instead of "that." Evaluate that claim.
Read the worked answer
The claim targets the wrong word.
Step 1 - Check the punctuation. The clause which was approved last week is set off by commas. That makes it non-restrictive: it adds extra information about guidelines already identified, rather than picking out which guidelines are meant. In non-restrictive clauses, which is the standard relative pronoun; that is normally avoided there.
Step 2 - Check the agreement. Guidelines is plural. The clause verb must be were, and the main verb must be require. These are the actual errors.
Step 3 - Note when the classmate would be right. If the writer removed the commas - "The new guidelines that were approved last week require …" - then the clause becomes restrictive and that is the preferred American choice. The verb would still have to be plural.
Verdict: "which" is acceptable as written. The errors are "was approved" and "requires," both of which ignore the plural subject.