APPENDIX A: COMMON EDITING CODES
Len Ferry
Table A1 provides examples of some of the most common editing codes, both abbreviations and symbols, that may be used when “marking-up” student work. It is not intended to be exhaustive or exclusionary, however.
Table A1: Commonly used editing codes
| COMMON ABBREVIATIONS | |
| agr | Agreement problem: usually subject—verb (for example, a plural subject is used with a singular verb: “The final days of summer is fleeting.” CORRECT: “The final days of summer are fleeting”). |
| amb | Ambiguous: what you have written could be interpreted/understood in more than one way, and so it is potentially confusing. |
| ap | Apostrophe error: usually you have forgotten to use one or you have used one where it isn’t necessary (as a general rule apostrophes indicate possession—e.g., the student’s laptop—but there are occasions where possession doesn’t require an apostrophe—e.g., the books are ours—remember this is only a general rule because apostrophes are also used in contractions (don’t, can’t, etc.) and in some plurals—e.g., you can write nineties, 90’s, or 90s—all three are correct). |
| awk | Awkward: the phrase or expression that you have used is unclear, imprecise, or confusing because it does not follow normal English usage. |
| cl | Cliché: it is sometimes difficult for students to identify clichés because they are so common, but that is the problem – when an expression or metaphor becomes so over-used it loses the vividness it once might have had (the first person to have written “think outside the box” likely caught the attention of their audience–today, this is an overused expression that more than likely makes no impact on readers). |
| c/cap
(OR uc/lc) |
Capitalization error. Proper nouns require capitals (proper nouns are names of places, persons, or things—e.g., Microsoft Excel not microsoft excel—note that the second, incorrect version could also be ambiguous since “excel” without a capital is a verb!) |
| cs (OR fused) | Comma splice: two sentences are improperly joined together by a comma only (“The students were unhappy, their marks were low on the assignment.”). This is one of two common types of fused sentences (sentences that are combined incorrectly). |
| d | Diction/word choice (either the word that you have used is incorrect or there is a better word available to express your thought or the connotations of the word do not fit the context.). |
| def | Define: usually you have used an important term for your purposes or you have used a common term in an unusual manner, and so you need to provide a definition of the word (this doesn’t have to be a dictionary definition: you can just explain or stipulate how you are using the word.). |
| dm | Dangling modifier: the modifier that you’ve used is not clearly connected to the word or phrase it is modifying (Incorrect: “Reading the book, the cat purred on her lap.” The sentence makes it look like the cat is reading, but clearly the student wanted to modify the person on whose lap the cat is sitting and purring. Correct: “Reading the book, the woman sat with a cat purring on her lap.”). |
| f.q. | Floating quotation: a source is quoted, but the quotation is dropped into the student’s text without being made part of one of their sentences. NOTE: the easiest way to avoid a floating quotation is to use a colon (:) to introduce any quotation (that is only one of many ways to incorporate quotations into your writing). |
| frag | Sentence fragment: the sentence is incomplete in some manner (typically a subject or verb is missing; occasionally, the fragment will simply consist of a phrase without either subject or verb). |
| gr | Grammar error (many of the items on this list are types of grammatical error, so ‘gr’ could identify something on the list or another type of error altogether). |
| inc | Incomplete (normally, this will be used of the thought that you are trying to express–to indicate that what you’ve tried to say is lacking something). |
| ital | Italics error (use italics to draw attention to a word or concept; to identify foreign words that are being used without translation; and to indicate the title of a book, magazine, journal, or movie.). |
| log | Logic/argumentation error: something doesn’t follow or there is a problem with the reasons or support you’ve given (this list of possible problems is long, but could include irrelevance, inadequacy, hastiness, unsoundness, invalidity, etc.). |
| p | Punctuation error (similar to ‘gr’, ‘p’ can be used to indicate a punctuation error identified in this list or one that isn’t). |
| Pass | Indicates that you’ve used the passive voice, when you should have used the active voice (Passive: “The lab report was successfully completed by the student.” ACTIVE (and preferable): “The student successfully completed the lab. report”). Active and passive differentiate moods of English verbs. Don’t confuse them with past tense, which is different. |
| red/rep | Redundant (you have something in the sentence that you don’t need because it says the same thing) or repetitive (you have already made the same or a similar point). |
| ref | Pronoun reference problem. You may have used “it” without clearly indicating to your reader what “it” refers to; or you’ve used “her” but it is unclear to whom you are referring because there were multiple female subjects. |
| r-o (OR fused) | Run-on sentence–the other (see cs above) common type of fused sentence (sometimes this is used to identify rambling sentences as well, even when they are not technically run-on sentences; but a run-on sentence, strictly speaking, involves two or more sentences that are improperly combined). |
| sp | Spelling error. |
| sp inf | Split infinitive: sounds terrifying! It is just the case that you have separated a part of a verb from the verb. How? The infinitive form of an English verb has two parts: (1) to (2) cook. It sounds strange, but you need the two parts to be together. Incorrect: “The parents wanted their children to not cook supper.” Correct: “The parents wanted their children not to cook supper.” |
| ss OR sty | Sentence structure (there may be a problem with a specific sentence or there may just be a general problem – that you use only one type of sentence structure or that your sentences lack fluidity or variety, for example; or, you may be writing several short sentences, fewer than ten words, or several long and difficult sentences, more than twenty-five words each). The concern is not mechanical but stylistic. Your writing should be clear and concise, but it should also be fluid. |
| ss OR ds | This may be used to indicate that you should single-space or double-space your work—yes, “ss” appears on this list twice, so it could be confusing, but the context will generally make it clear! |
| supp | Provide support/evidence for the point that you are making. |
| tense | Tense shift: this means that you have changed tenses without good reason (whenever possible stick to the present tense–it makes for clearer writing). |
| trans | Transition: usually it means that you haven’t provided a transition between paragraphs (keep in mind that you are leading your reader through your text with your words: if you don’t identify where you are going, your reader won’t be able to follow. Think of transitions as signposts along the way—we’ve just been here, but now we are going there! Transitions can be skipped when you use headings in your document). |
| ts | This abbreviation can be used to indicate a problem with or the absence of a topic sentence of a paragraph (context will clarify). |
| t/w | Either you’ve used “that” where you should have used “which” or the opposite. Generally, use the demonstrative pronoun “that” for essential sentence content (if you can remove the content after “that” without impairing the meaning of the sentence, it is non-essential content–in that case use “which” rather than that). |
| unc | Unclear: either the written expression itself is unclear (what you have written doesn’t make sense or isn’t easily decipherable) or the overall explanation or point that you are trying to make doesn’t make sense. |
| us | Usage error: usually indicates the use of an incorrect form (for example, using the contraction “they’re” – they are – where the possessive – “their” – was needed: “The students were late for they’re (incorrect) class.” Correct: “The students were late for their class.”). Homonyms are common examples of usage errors, but there are other types as well. |
| vag | Vague: the thought you are trying to express needs clarification. |
| wc | You may have used the wrong word, but it might just be that the word choice you’ve made isn’t the most effective. Consider using a different word in that case. |
| wdy | Wordy (this one is self-explanatory: you’ve said in many words what could and should have been said in fewer–a common complaint with passive voice sentence structures.). |
| COMMON SYMBOLS | |
| ^ | This normally indicates that something is missing and needs to be inserted (it might be as simple as a missing punctuation mark, such as a comma). |
| ¶ | Paragraph: there is a problem with paragraphing (either you need to begin a new paragraph because you are trying to cover too many topics or your paragraph is too short; alternatively, this symbol can be used to indicate that the paragraph lacks unity, flow, or development). Follow this rule: each paragraph should have only 1 main idea. |
| — | Underline: this is a default – it indicates that something is incorrect, but it does not specify the precise nature of the error (think of a time when your car started to make a strange, new noise – you might not have known exactly what was wrong, but you knew something was). |
| // | Faulty parallelism or parallel structure: in grouping items into a list (in sentence or bulleted format) ensure that the items have the same grammatical form. Incorrect: “The students came with pencils, pens, and four bundles of unlined, whole-punched paper.” Correct: “The students came to class with pencils, pens, and paper.” |
| ? | Questionable statement, argument (claim, grounds, etc.), or explanation. This symbol can also be used simply to indicate a lack of clarity in your composition. |
| ~ | Transpose the items (switch the order of the items indicated). |