More Proofreading Symbols
Symbol
stuff
Meaning
Example
use stronger or more appropriate
diction – find a better word
Sam has a lot of stuff on his walls.
Sam displays a lot of graffiti art on his walls.
Never use these words: thing, stuff,
nice, good, bad, okay, big, little
check your spelling
Sam rode a jeap to skool.
Sam rode a jeep to school.
capitalize
i went to cvs to buy the DVD, avatar.
speling
cathy
/
SVA
I went to CVS to buy the DVD, Avatar.
use lower case letters
Sam Loves chocolate Ice-cream.
 Sam loves chocolate ice-cream.
subject verb agreement
The problem with these cities are leadership.
 The problem with these cities is leadership.
The teacher talk too fast.
 The teacher talks too fast.
CS
FRAG
comma splice
Sam tried her best, it wasn’t enough.
a comma is used incorrectly to
separate two sentences
 Sam tried her best. It wasn’t enough.
 Sam tried her best, but it wasn’t enough.
fragment – the sentence is
incomplete; you need to write a
complete sentence
Before we laughed at the clown.
 We laughed at the clown.
Because he talked forever.
Because he talked forever, we ignored him.
P/A
pronoun antecedent agreement or
pronoun reference problem
The student should visit their counselor.
 The student should visit her counselor.
the pronoun doesn’t match the noun it
refers to
RO
run-on sentence – you need to add
punctuation to end sentences, or
connect sentences with conjunctions
(for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so)
Sam ate two ice-cream cones she wanted more.
Sam ate two ice-cream cones. She wanted more.
VT
verb tense – keep all verbs in the
same tense
He go into the room, and he pulled his gun.
 He went into the room, and he pulled his gun.
More Proofreading Symbols