[Grammar] What are you really asking?

[anonymous1234]

I have a disagreement with someone about this and I would like tome expert advice as to who is correct.

Suppose that you ask someone named “X” to review a group of documents and produce a report concerning the information contained in these documents. Among other things, you ask X to comment upon “instances” in the documents in which a number above 89 appears. There is a single instance in the documents in which “100” is written but no other place where a number higher than 89 appears. X completes the report but makes no comment about the “100” that is written in the documents. Has X followed your instructions because when you asked for comment upon “instances” this only required X to comment if there were two or more places in the documents where a number larger than 89 appeared or did X not follow your instructions because asking for comment on “instances” required X to comment if there was only one time a number above 89 appeared?

Thank you.

 

[GoesStation]

You should perhaps have written "any instances", but only a dolt would understand your instructions to exclude the case where only a single instance occurs. You would have written something like "two or more instances" if you'd wanted to do that.

 

[jutfrank]

Whether you use any or not, the plural instances covers a single instance.

 

[Tdol]

The reviewer's interpretation of the instruction strikes me as odd.