Editing a Sentence: Agreement, Comma, and the Tempting Fix
A student is editing a classmate's sentence for a school magazine: 'The group of students who was working on the project, they finished early and presented it.' The editor marks three problems and proposes: 'The group of students who were working on the project finished early and presented it.' A second student objects that 'group' is singular, so 'were' is wrong. The teacher asks the class to decide, noting that the relative clause 'who was/were working' attaches to 'students,' not to 'group,' and that the comma before 'they' does not fix the double subject. The magazine's style guide requires subject-verb agreement and forbids redundant pronouns.
1. Which verb form is correct in the relative clause, and why?
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'Were' is correct. The relative pronoun 'who' refers to the nearest plural noun, 'students,' so the clause is 'students who were working.' The head noun 'group' governs the main verb ('The group ... finished'), which is singular and correct. The second student confuses the two clauses: 'group' controls 'finished,' but 'who' controls 'were.' A good answer names which noun each verb agrees with rather than applying one rule globally.
2. Identify the remaining error the editor's version still contains or confirm it is clean, and justify.
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The editor's version is clean on the double-subject problem: deleting 'they' removes the redundant pronoun, and the comma with it. The main clause now reads 'The group ... finished early and presented it,' which is grammatical. So the editor fixed the agreement in the relative clause and the redundant subject. The lesson is that an edit must be checked clause by clause: removing 'they' also requires removing the comma that separated it, otherwise a stray comma remains. Confirming 'clean' is acceptable only if every clause is verified.