attention grammarians!

[nolly]

"This index will show you the number and percent of students that selected specific answer options."

OR

"This index will show you the number and percent of students who selected specific answer options."

OR

something else?

Comments

I think...

[the-ogre.livejournal.com]

..it would be "who have selected".

Re: I think...

[pbristow.livejournal.com]

Ah, but that's shifting the tense, though, which may not be appropriate:

"Who selected" at a specific time. (Reference is to a specific past event when selection occurred);

"Who have selected" at any time in the past. (Reference is to their current state, i.e. the state of "having selected...")


- Johnny Come Lately, aka Interfering Wise-Guy, aka Paul B. =:o} (who should be on his way to work by now but can't resist a good grammatical challenge.)

Re: I think...

[pbristow.livejournal.com]

N.B. I'm arguing from "English English" usage. I've noticed that "American TV usage" (presumably Californian?) leans towards using "Who did" rather than "Who has done", etc. - e.g. "I already did that" rather than "I've already done that".

It's not clear to me whether this is due to a different understanding of the meaning of the two tenses, or just a different way of looking at situations, i.e. that Californians (or "American TeeVeans") are naturally more inclined to focus on the specific event, wheras English/Brits would focus more on the fact of "In the past"-ness.

Comments welcome, but I should probably be discussing this in my own LJ, shouldn't I? Hang on, I'll repost this there.

[SINGS "Come on along to my house... ]