Is "an assortment of [something plural]" singular or plural?
Removing the [something plural] makes the answer easier:
An assortment was here.
makes more sense than
An assortment were here.
Put in the [something plural], eg. "people", now I'm not sure which way sounds the most correct:
An assortment of people was here.
or
An assortment of people were here.
Answer
US English is is more cut-and-dried on this topic. "An assortment of people was . . ." is correct. "An assortment of people were . . ." is not correct and this very construction is commonly used by test writers to test agreement in number for the very reason that it does sound correct. I tried a couple of grammar check systems and they agree with my analysis. Since the writing samples used for college admission in the US are moving toward a human-less scoring scheme, I expect grammatical standards will become even more concrete. The questioner is from Minnesota and if he starts going around saying stuff like, "The Committee are unable to reach a consensus," he might get deported to a land where HRH Prince William posts, "It.s a Boy. Beautiful Boy." on FB.
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