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Sprint 5.5: The Stance You Did Not Mean

Learner recognises where a modal or an aspect has committed them to a stronger or weaker position than they hold, and corrects it.

6 micro-lessons

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Which Reading Does This Give?

Six sentences. In four, both readings are available.

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Governments must act on emissions. Which reading does this give?

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The Same Modal Says Two Things

Must, should, and reading it as a stranger.

must

Governments must act. — an obligation.
This must be the cause. — a deduction.

Same word, two jobs.

The reader takes whichever one the sentence supports — not the one you had in mind.

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Obligation, or Deduction

Twelve sentences. Two are genuinely ambiguous.

Sort each item into the correct category

The writer is saying what should happen

The writer is saying what they conclude

Genuinely ambiguous — both survive

Unassigned

Governments must act on emissions before 2030.

The cause must be the fee rise, since nothing else changed that year.

Cities should invest in buses rather than roads.

Applications should recover by 2026, given the cap.

Universities must be funded from general taxation.

The effect must be smaller in rural areas, where no bus runs.

Fees should fall next year.

Employers must provide training for new staff.

The scheme must have cost more than was announced.

Councils should reverse the closures.

The trend should continue for another decade.

Rents should stabilise after the reform.

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Say the One You Meant

Eight sentences with the intended meaning stated. Two are clear already.

The intended meaning is given. Rewrite each sentence so only that reading survives. Two are already unambiguous — write no change for those.

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You mean a prediction. Fees should fall next year. →
You mean a recommendation. Fees should fall next year. →
You mean a deduction. The cause must be the fee rise, since nothing else changed. →
You mean they lack the money, not that they are forbidden. Students cannot afford the increase. →
You mean no rule requires it. Applicants need not submit a portfolio. →
You mean a recommendation, not a warning. Governments had better act quickly. →
You mean an obligation. Employers must provide training for new staff. →
You mean a prediction. Rents should stabilise after the reform. →

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Recommend and Predict

Two sentences that cannot be read as each other.

Write two sentences on one topic — one recommending an action, one predicting an outcome — with no ambiguity between them.

Topic: university tuition fees.

Sentence 1: recommend an action. It must be unmistakably a recommendation. Sentence 2: predict an outcome. It must be unmistakably a prediction.

Neither should be readable as the other.

Your two sentences*

One per line.

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Read It as a Stranger

Could your prediction be read as advice?

Learners can ask follow-up questions and keep the thread going.

Read your prediction back as if somebody else wrote it and you had no idea what they meant.

Could it be read as advice?

What would you change?

just now

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