Prof L Overman Symbols Used in Marking Papers
1
G or √
emphasis
good
emphasis obscured
agr
awk or K
apo
cap
choppy
coh
const
cf
cs
dm
del
diction
ds
faulty agreement between subject and verb
awkward
apostrophe
use capital letter
too many short sentences
coherence/focus problems
sentence construction
comma fault
comma splice
dangling modifier
delete
inappropriate word choice
double space
exp or explain
you seem to be making a valid point, but your statement cannot stand
alone without more explanation.
frag
fragment
gr
ital
is
jump
L
lc
mm
MLA
OT
pn
¶
faulty grammar
use italics only
incomplete sentence
you have jumped to a new idea without providing adequate
connections or transitions
logic; this does not follow
use lower case
misplaced modifier
you are not using proper MLA documentation format
off track; you are going away from your thesis or main point
faulty punctuation
new paragraph
//
pass
prep
proof
POQ
ref
rep
RO
RR
parallelism
passive writing
preposition confusion
unnecessary typos/sloppy proofing
place commas & periods inside quotations mark
reference of pronoun vague or misleading
awkward repetition
run-on
rough read: I understand what you’re saying , but try to be clearer
/#
sub
T
add a space
subordinate
tense incorrect (note: present tense always used in
Prof L Overman Symbols Used in Marking Papers
2
narrating the content of a literary work)
trans
unc
wdy
ww
wd
w/
w/o
x or O
transition
unclear
wordy
wrong word
reconsider word choice
with
without
obvious trouble here as in this is wrong and/or circle
also indicates incorrect
what?
Why?
I don’t know what you are referring to. You need a name, a noun, or an
explanation here.
Statement is not self-explanatory. I’m not necessarily
arguing against your point but you need to provide more
information.
?
really? are you sure? I doubt it (or I can’t read this)
!
Wow! Fun! Interesting/Surprising
☺
I like. I’m smiling.