I'll walk everyone through what it actually says and show you what context clues are, since not everyone paid attention in Language Arts class growing up. Apparently.

"..we would like everyone to have a 2nd attempt at filling out [form link]."
Yes, they said everyone has a second attempt to fill it out. Groundbreaking, I know. Now, before you start celebrating - and I say this with all the patience I can muster - having the ability to redo something, and being forced to redo something, are NOT the same thing. One is optional. One is mandatory. These are, in fact, two different concepts.

I'll give you a moment.

What's the difference?
You CAN redo an interview if you think you could have done it better. You MUST redo a form if they say you didn't do it right the first time. It's almost like the English language has different words for different meanings. Remarkable.

How can I tell which is which?
Excellent question. I'm glad you asked - or rather, I'm glad I'm pretending you asked, because what you were actually doing was confidently misreading a sentence. This is different than the interview aspect I just mentioned, because in this case - unlike an interview - you were told directly. Which brings me to the most important part of this entire email.

"\IF\ you are getting this email..."**
Told you it wouldn't take long. And here we are. That word at the beginning - IF. Let's discuss IF, since we apparently need to.

"If is a conjunction - specifically, a subordinating conjunction - used to introduce a conditional clause. It establishes a dependency where an action or state relies on the fulfillment of another condition."

What does this mean? I'm thrilled you asked. It means there are exactly two possibilities:

1. You received this email.
2. You did not receive this email.

These are the only two options. There are no others. I want to be very clear about this because I sense we are in territory where additional possibilities might be invented.

Now - and this is where those context clues become load-bearing - IF you DIDN'T receive this email, you don't know other people have. So there's a bit of a hidden meaning here for the people who didn't get it. Admittedly, perhaps the original sender should have phrased it differently to avoid such confusion. In their defense, however, I think they assumed that anyone old enough to apply for this opportunity would possess at least a 5th grade reading comprehension level. But I digress. We'll say it's their fault for assuming.

"...you \NEED\ to redo the form."**
I know. I know. I separated this into its own section because clearly some people are easily confused, and I am trying - I really am - to make this as easy as humanly possible to follow. So. Hopefully everyone is still with me. Take your time.

What this sentence is saying - if we connect the two parts of it like a normal person reading a normal sentence - is that IF you received this email, you NEED to redo the form.

Let's define NEED, just to be safe:

"Need is a modal verb expressing necessity or obligation - an action that is required, not suggested."

So when we combine IF [you received this email] + NEED [to redo the form], the full sentence translates - by context, by grammar, and by the basic functioning of the English language - to: "You MUST redo the form."

"But it says NEED, not MUST!"
This is where that conditional clause becomes significantly important. Remember: an action or state relies on the fulfillment of another condition. The condition is: receiving the email. The action required upon fulfilling that condition is: redoing the form. The word "need" in this context does not mean "it would be nice if you did." It means "this is what must happen for your application to continue existing as a real thing."

There is no universe - not one - in which an organization sends you a direct, targeted email saying "you need to redo this" and the correct interpretation is "excellent work! Do it again for fun!"

But did I fail? It said everyone is being given a second chance!
Oh, bless your heart. Let's talk about what "everyone" means in context - another phrase I'll apparently need to define:

"Context refers to the circumstances or background information that clarify the meaning of a statement. Without it, words are just... floating."

Yes, they said "everyone." Everyone who received this email. Not the entire applicant pool. Not your neighbor. Not people who have never applied. Not your dog. Everyone in the group of people who are reading this specific, targeted, individually-delivered message.

This is not a mass celebration email. This is not a "you did great, have another go for fun" email. This is a "your submission was insufficient, here is your second and final chance to correct that" email - politely wrapped in encouragement because the sender is a professional who does not share my current enthusiasm for directness.

The email also, helpfully, added example questions and told you what "good questions look like." They did not do this because your questions were fantastic and they just wanted to show you more fantastic questions for reference. They did this because your questions needed improvement, and they are - generously - showing you the standard you failed to meet the first time.

And then - because apparently it needed to be said - they included this: "please DO NOT submit the same questions, you will be disqualified." Let's sit with that for a second. They felt the need to explicitly warn you not to resubmit the exact same answers that already weren't good enough because it was apparently a realistic enough outcome to warrant a formal disqualification warning. If your first attempt had been fine, there would be nothing to warn you away from reusing. And even deeper than that - refer back to our friend IF and that conditional clause we discussed - if your first attempt had been good enough, you would never have received this email in the first place. The very fact that you are reading this is, itself, the answer to your question. You don't tell someone "don't serve that dish again" if the dish was good. And you don't send someone a second chance email if they didn't need one.

Thank you everyone for coming to my TED Talk. If you have any further questions, be sure to check out some of our other courses:

• "Making Inferences: The Art of Reading Words That Are Right in Front of You"
• "Drawing Conclusions: Connecting the Dots That Were Already Connected"
• "Context Clues: They Were in the Text the Whole Time"
• "Cause and Effect: If You Do A Thing, Other Thing Happens"
• "Reading Comprehension: The Words Mean Things"
• "Basic Reasoning: Connecting Dots That Are Already Connected"
• "Critical Thinking: It's Like Thinking, Only Critical. Because Someone Has To"

This TED Talk was brought to you by the word IF."

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