Grammar questions on the usage of "some" and "some of the" [closed]

I am correcting a short journal writes up from my student, who is from Korea and notice that I am so lacking of grammar knowledge in explaining to her why it is wrong in her sentence.

Below is one of her work:

"Today, some teachers who are from a University in Canada came to our school to give an introduction talk about their University."

This is the opening of her journal. For me, I think it sounds not very right. Below is my correction:

"Today, some of the lecturers, who are from a University in Canada visited our school to give an introduction talk about their University."

What do you think of my correction?

And after you have answered the above question, can you give me some tips on how to correct students' essay? Shall I change their whole sentence? Or I just change their grammar mistake?

Solution 1:

The student's original both sounds more natural and looks more correct than your correction.

Some lecturers simply means several lecturers ("some" being an adjective modifying "lecturers"), whereas some of the lecturers means several of a selected group of lecturers ("some" being used as a noun). As re-phrased, the sentence sounds as if the reader has missed some information about other lecturers who are present, perhaps that the visiting lecturers are also lecturers at the student's school. I'll leave aside the punctuation and capitalization errors.

Where I would suggest improvement is the wordiness. Since it is a journal which already has a date, "today" is not necessary, and "introduction talk" is not as natural as "introductory talk" or simply "introduction."

I might suggest something along the lines of

Some lecturers from a university in Canada came to our school to introduce it to us.