A Guide to Editing Marks

I make two general kinds of comments on your papers: (1) corrections and suggestions concerning your ideas and arguments; and (2) corrections and suggestions on matters of grammar, construction, and style. This sheet provides a guide to the latter set of marks. Below I have listed the notations and abbreviations I use to make these corrections, along with the “translation” of these marks. You can find helpful suggestions for correcting nearly all of these problems in the book, Essentials of English, by Hopper, et al. Whenever possible, I have listed the page numbers that correspond to these marks.

?	Confusing. I can’t understand your argument. Try to clarify.
agreement	The subject and verb don't agree with each other.
ambig	Ambiguous. Your statement is open to multiple interpretations. Clarify your meaning.
awk	Awkward construction. The sentence or paragraph does not flow well.
circular	Circular reasoning. You’re using the conclusion to prove the assumption or premise.
cliché	An overused phrase. Example: “The voters need a real shot in the arm.”
comma	Improper use of commas. (Essentials, pgs. 55, 113-121)
empty	Empty statement. The construction may be correct, but the idea contributes nothing to the paper. Make every statement count. Example: “There are many difficult problems facing the world today.”
frag	Sentence fragment. Example: "The voters who are angry." (Essentials, pg. 53)
non-seq	Non-sequitor. The conclusion does not follow from the assumptions or premises. Example: “Voters today are angry, so politicians have increased power.”
number	Disagreement between the number of the subject and verb. (Essentials, pg. 57)
passive	Unnecessary use of passive voice. (Essentials, pg. 18)
poss	Improper expression of possessives. (Essentials, pg. 4)
prep	Improper use of preposition, especially the use of a preposition to start a sentence. (Essentials, pg. 30)
r.o.s.	Run-on-sentence. The sentence is too long or contains too many clauses. Break it up into smaller sentences, or eliminate unnecessary words.
red	Your statement makes the same point twice.
rep	Repetitive – you are using the same word or phrase too often. Try for more variety.
sp	Incorrect spelling.
syntax	Improper sentence construction.
tent	Tentative. Try for more direct, positive, and forceful expression. Example: “I am willing to believe that it is possible that voters are angry.” Try instead: “The voters are angry.” (Essentials, pg. 178). Special problem: “ing” verbs. Example: “Voters are feeling angry.” Try instead: “Voters feel angry.”
vague	Your meaning is cloudy. Express the idea more concretely and specifically. (Essentials, pg. 178).
wc	Improper word choice. Try a different word or phrase to express the idea.
wordy	Too many words; express the idea more concisely. (Essentials, pg. 179)