The following abbreviations and symbols are commonly used to identify mistakes in writing and will be found in most writing handbooks (sometimes in slightly different forms). If your essay is marked with one of these abbreviations or symbols and you do not understand what is wrong, use a writing handbook or a dictionary, or both, for further explanation of what the error is and how to correct it. If you still do not understand what the error is or how to correct it, ask your instructor.

abbr	Abbreviation is faulty or inappropriate.	shift	shift in verb tense or mood, or in point of view
ad	misuse of adverb or adjective	slang	inappropriately low diction
agr	faulty agreement of verb with subject or of pronoun with antecedent	sp	faulty spelling
art	article (a, an, or the) misused or missing	sub	faulty subordination
awk	awkward	sexist	sexist language
cap	capital letter required	t	The verb tense is faulty.
case	error in noun case	trans	A transition is needed.
coh	lack of coherence	transpose	Change the word order as indicated.
coord	faulty coordination	u	unity lacking
cs	comma splice	usage	faulty usage–see a dictionary
dev	faulty development	v or vb	verb faulty
diction	faulty or inappropriate diction	var	lack of variety in sentence structure
doc	documentation of sources missing, incomplete, or inaccuarate	w	wordy
emph	faulty emphasis	ww	wrong word
frag	sentence fragment	//	faulty parallelism
fs	fused sentence (also called run-on)		Insert at this point.
hyphen	error in hyphenation	#	add space
idiom	not idiomatic English		close space
ital	Use italics.		delete
lc	Use lowercase letter.	¶	Start a new paragraph.
mixed	mixed construction (also referred to as alignment)	no ¶	Do not start a new paragraph.
mm	misplaced modifier		good point, or aptly put
mood	wrong verb mood	?	Questionable
num	numbers in wrong format	??	not understandable
p	punctuation
pass	passive voice that is ineffective
passim	(Latin for “here and there”) The error marked at this point appears elsewhere in this essay (though it may not be marked elsewhere –it is your task to find it).
pl	error in the plural form
ref	error in pronoun reference
rep	repetitious

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