please, help me out!!!

[asad hussain]

Dear teachers,
Could you please have a look at the text below for grammar mistakes and fix them? And please rephrase the line that you feel childish or old-fashioned.

__________________________________________________ ________________
Respected English teacher,
Sam has taken a test in his copy. Only one spelling mistake has been encountered, and he has been awarded 7 marks out of 10. He is afraid that you will give him a reprimand if he asks you to scrutinize the test result.
May I therefore request you to see if he can be awarded more marks, and help him out.

Thanking you
Ronald.
__________________________________________________ ________________

[hieple5]

Therefore, may I request you to see if he can be awarded more marks, and help him out.

[JCrawf]

Originally Posted by asad hussain

Dear teachers,
Could you please have a look at the text below for grammar mistakes and fix them? And please rephrase the line that you feel childish or old-fashioned.

__________________________________________________ ________________
Respected English teacher,
Sam has taken a test in his copy. Only one spelling mistake has been encountered, and he has been awarded 7 marks out of 10. He is afraid that you will give him a reprimand if he asks you to scrutinize the test result.
May I therefore request you to see if he can be awarded more marks, and help him out.



Thanking you
Ronald.


__________________________________________________ ________________

Hello, Ronald,
Maybe this will serve:
Respected English teacher,
Sam made only one spelling mistake on the test he took. He was given a grade of 7 out of a possible 10. He is afraid you will reprimand him if he asks you to review the grade you gave him. I am asking, on his behalf, that you review his test to see if you can give him a higher grade.
Regards

[asad hussain]

Thanks, JCrawF!
But could you please explain to me why you have used the simple past tense instead of the present perfect?, and is it correct to say " I am asking that you review his test" instead of "I am asking you to review his test". Someone told me that we use to after ask, request, forbid, order and tell. And one more thing that i am stumped by is the right use of " May I therefore".
I would be so thankful to you, if you spend some of your steep time on helping me cope with these problems.
Thanks again.

[Tdol]

I think 'I am asking that...' is OK, though I would naturally use 'asking you to'.

[JCrawf]

Originally Posted by asad hussain

Thanks, JCrawF!
But could you please explain to me why you have used the simple past tense instead of the present perfect?, and is it correct to say " I am asking that you review his test" instead of "I am asking you to review his test". Someone told me that we use to after ask, request, forbid, order and tell. And one more thing that i am stumped by is the right use of " May I therefore".
I would be so thankful to you, if you spend some of your steep time on helping me cope with these problems.
Thanks again.

Hello, Asad,

I used the simple past tense because the action is final. Sam will not take the test again. If we use the present perfect tense in this context, we leave open the possibility that he will retake the test some time in the future: "Sam has taken the test [in the past, and he will take it again this afternoon]."

We use "to" after ask, request, forbid... if the word is followed by a proper noun or a pronoun, or a word representing a person or group of people:
I asked George to ... She ordered me to... Sam requested the committee to...

"Therefore" means "for that reason."
It's raining, therefore the children have to play inside.
We usually don't use "therefore" in informal speech, we use "so."
It's raining, so the children have to play inside.


Regards

[asad hussain]

Thanks for your help, JCrawF and Tdol!

But I am still up the creek one thing-you said that If I used The Present Perfect there, I would leave the possiblity open insinuating that Sam would be tested again. I have studied that The Present Perfect tells us about the past and the present not the past and future, because if I say "They have eaten all the eggs", it doesn't mean that they will again eat some eggs. And it's obviously impossible because I know that there aren't any left. Similarly, if I say "Sam has taken a test.", it doesn't mean he will retake the test in the future, just because he is finished with the test, and the test copy contains the matter he wrote. Kindly help me cope with this grammar things which has been reeling in my mind for a couple of weeks.

Meanwhile, thanking you for all the help you have given me so far,

regards,

Asad

[JCrawf]

Originally Posted by asad hussain

Thanks for your help, JCrawF and Tdol!

But I am still up the creek one thing-you said that If I used The Present Perfect there, I would leave the possiblity open insinuating that Sam would be tested again. I have studied that The Present Perfect tells us about the past and the present not the past and future, because if I say "They have eaten all the eggs", it doesn't mean that they will again eat some eggs. And it's obviously impossible because I know that there aren't any left. Similarly, if I say "Sam has taken a test.", it doesn't mean he will retake the test in the future, just because he is finished with the test, and the test copy contains the matter he wrote. Kindly help me cope with this grammar things which has been reeling in my mind for a couple of weeks.

Meanwhile, thanking you for all the help you have given me so far,

regards,

Asad

Hello, Asad,
A short answer would be confusing, so this will be rather long:

I have been to Paris several times [and I may go to Paris again].
She has read Shakespeare's "Hamlet" [and she may read it again]

One use of the present perfect tense is to leave open the possibility that the action described may be repeated in the future.

I wrote that "Sam has taken the test" leaves the possibility that he may take the test again. If Sam completed the test sheet and his teacher lost it, the teacher might require him to take the test again. Sam would be taking the test, even though he was recording his answers on a different test sheet. He would be repeating the action described (taking the test).

Similarly, the action described in "They have eaten all the eggs" may be repeated:
They ate all the eggs yesterday. Today you tell me "They have eaten all the eggs," so I buy more eggs. They eat all of those eggs. Tomorrow you'll tell me "They have eaten all the eggs again." True, they would not have eaten the same eggs, but the action (eating all the eggs) has been repeated.

English can be confusing, can't it?
Regards

[MrPedantic]

I wouldn't myself object to a present perfect in such a context, e.g.

1. Sam has been awarded 7 marks out of a possible 10.

Here, the present perfect conveys "recent event" (or "news", as another member here once put it).

("Respected English teacher" might sound a little strange, though.)

All the best,

MrP

[asad hussain]

JCrawf, you have been really very helpful. But I tell you what the concept of leaving open a possibility is still unclear and makes me feel that I am very dense.

Actually a few days ago, I visited a webpage and found that when I say “I have been to Paris several times”, this means that I have the experience of being to Paris several times. Now the question is “Why would I experience the same thing in the future?”, when I don’t intend to go to Paris in the future.
I know your time is very precious, but I would like you to visit the page that I visited, because the future isn’t mentioned there at all.

( ENGLISH PAGE - Present Perfect )

Meanwhile, I am really very sorry, if I am bothering you, and thanks again for your help.