Monday, May 30, 2011

Error Alert

I've been marking a variety of scripts from schools all over the world just lately and there've been the usual blunders here and there to provoke the odd chuckle. Coming across a reference to Cherry Orchard a novel written by Tolstoy elicited a wry smile, but the smile sort of faded as I found the error repeated, except crediting the text as a play, and one or two even giving it its full title, which was a bit of relief, in every script I marked that mentioned it from the school involved. Which led me to the inescapable but horrifying conclusion that this was what their teacher had told them. Did no one think to look at the cover?!

3 comments:

Trebuchet said...

Maybe they had a list and thought they were being told to 'check off' The Cherry Orchard. Which was in the same list of Russian texts as Tolstoy's stuff. Ho ho...

Anonymous said...

Chekhov turning in his grave...poor fellow.

Brian Connor said...

Oh I think the good doctor might well have enjoyed the humour of the situation. (Though not Trebuchet's dreadful pun. No.)