CORRECTION SYMBOLS AND ABBREVIATIONS USED IN MARKING ESSAYS
ab
Abbreviation inappropriate or incorrect
ack
Acknowledgement missing or faulty (You did not give credit to a source you
borrowed ideas or words from)
adj Adj
ective missing or faulty
adj: He is feeling badly today.
Correction: He is feeling bad today.
Adv
Adverb missing or faulty
adv: He doesn’t write very good.
Correction: He doesn’t write very well.
agr
Agreement faulty
1. Subject-verb
agr: There wasn’t many students in class today.
Cor: There weren’t many students in class today.
2. Pronoun-antecedent
Agr: If one is to succeed, you must work hard.
Cor: If one is to succeed, one must work hard.
amb
Ambiguous
Ambiguity is a type of lack of clarity in which your sentence can be interpreted in two
ways.
amb: John Black wrote a book on the justice system in 1980.
(Was the book written in 1980, or was it about the justice system in 1980?)
Cor: In 1980, John Black wrote a book on the justice system.
apos Apostrophe missing or misused.
apos: Whose going to know the truth?
Cor: Who’s going to know the truth?
art
Article missing or misused.
art: It was an humbling experience.
Cor: It was a humbling experience.
awk
Awkward
Awk indicates that there is something wrong with your sentence that cannot be repaired by simply
changing a few words. The teacher is suggesting you rewrite the entire section indicated.
ca
Case
Ca: Dan and me were late (Correction: I – subjective case needed)
Ca: He gave them to Dan and I (Correction: me – objective case needed)
cap
Capitalization
Cap: He’s coming on monday
Cor: He’s coming in Monday
cl
Clarity
Cl may indicate that your wording makes your idea impossible to understand or that the wording may be
correct but your idea itself is unclear.
coh
Coherence lacking
Coh suggests that the connection between two paragraphs or between two sentences in the same
paragraph is weak or lacking completely. Often using transition words like “furthermore” or “however”
can solve the problem if the ideas in both are indeed linked.
comb
Combine sentences
Combining sentences is sometimes desirable to eliminate wordiness or to add some variety to your
sentence types. Trying using coordination or subordination or perhaps both.
coord
Coordination needed
Coord: Life in the North can be very challenging. Life in a large city offers more variety.
Cor: Life in the North can be very challenging , but life in a large city offers more variety.
cs
Comma Splice
Cs means that two closely related independent clauses have been joined together with a comma; however,
a comma is not strong enough to use in this position. Instead use a coordinating conjunction, an
adverbial conjunction or a semi-colon.
dev
Development needed
This indicates that an idea, point, or subject needs to be further developed, expanded upon; revise by
supplying details, examples, or illustrations, by defining or explaining.
dm
Dangling Modifier
Correct a dangling modifier either by changing it so that it no longer dangles or by providing a logical
noun or pronoun.
Dm: Running to quickly around the corner of the building, a newsstand suddenly loomed in
front of me.
Cor: When I ran too quickly around the corner of the building, a newsstand suddenly loomed
in front of me.
Cor: Running to quickly around the corner of the building, I was suddenly confronted by a
newsstand looming in front of me.
fp
Faulty Parallelism
Fp indicates that certain parts of your sentence are not in the correct form to be parallel.
Fp: I spent my summer with books and going for walks.
Cor: I spent my summer reading and going for walks.
frag
Fragment
Frag means that a group of words does not have all the elements necessary to make and independent
clause that can stand alone.
Frag: I stayed at home last weekend. Having no money.
Cor: Having no money, I stayed at home last weekend.
gr
Grammatical error
This indicates that your sentence contains a grammatical error that is not defined by one of the other
symbols.
ill
Illegible
Your writing is impossible to read.
inf
Informal diction
Inf: He is the most stuck-up boy in the class. (Replace with vain, conceited, egotistical, snobbish)
Lc
Lower case
lc: I had always planned to get a University education.
Cor: I had always planned to get a university education.
log
Logic faulty
log: His job was one way to become independent. (A job is not a way.)
Cor: Getting a job was one way to become independent.
log: In giving a precise definition of what this mental science is, Asimov is very vague.
Cor: Asimov fails to provide a precise definition of this mental science.
mm
Misplaced modifier
Mm: To our surprise, John asked Maggie to marry him rather than Beth.
Cor: To our surprise, John asked Maggie rather than Beth to marry him.
nsw
No such word
Taking a little extra time to think and to check in your dictionary should help you avoid inventing words
such as ambiguosity, afraidness and prejudism.
om
Omit
org
Organization
A poorly thought-out outline, or perhaps writing without pre-planning, can result in errors of organization
such as repetition, choppiness, lack of emphasis in some places and not enough in others etc. This is a
very serious error as it is probably what leaves the strongest impression on your reader.
p
Punctuation
pos
Possessive lacking or incorrect
Pos: Their mother sewed all five daughter’s dresses.
Cor: Their mother sewed all five daughters’ dresses.
para
Paragraph indentation needed, paragraphing weak
passim
This is latin for throughout and means that you are repeating the same error.
q
Quotation or quotation marks mishandled
red
Redundancy
Red: Throughout the entire story the tone is the same.
Cor: Throughout the story the tone is the same.
ref
Reference of pronoun faulty
ref
: Because Mr. and Mrs. Jones didn’t love their children, they didn’t give them gifts at
Christmas.
(It is not clear who, the parents or the children, didn’t give gifts.)
run-on
Run-on sentence (also called fused sentence)
This indicates a failure to put any punctuation between two independent clauses. This can be corrected
by using a semi-colon when the two are closely related or a period if they are not.
run-on: Vancouver is the most beautifully situated city in Canada it also has some ugly slums.
Cor: Vancouver is the most beautifully situated city in Canada; it also has some ugly slums.
shift
Shift in perspective
Shift indicates that you have changed perspective in some way, usually from the past to the present or
vice versa. It is imperative that the same perspective with respect to time be kept throughout your
composition.
sp
Spelling
sub
Subordination needed
Sub: Forster has done a superb job in his use of examples. His examples are clear and precise.
Cor: Forster has do ne a superb job in his use of examples, which are clear and precise.
syl
Syllabication
In English, a word that is divided at the end of a line must be divided only where syllable breaks occur.
Check your dictionary or avoid dividing.
t
Tense of verb wrong
tr
Transition weak or lacking (see also coherence)
var
Variety lacking
Try to improve the variety of lengths, kinds and patterns of your sentences.
vb
Verb form wrong
vb: After the accident he was took to the hospital.
Cor: After the accident he was taken to the hospital.
W
Wordiness
Your ideas could be expressed more effectively if you wrote more concisely.
wf
Word form wrong
Wf: He looked at me strange.
Cor: He looked at me strangely. (see also adj and adv)
wm
Word missing
wo
Word order
Wo: She was naturally hurt his indifference. (See also mm)
Cor: Naturally, she was hurt by his indifference.
ww
Wrong word
