Ocean City School District Editing Symbols – High School
Mark
agr
awk
Instruction
Example
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check agreement of subject / verb, pronoun / antecedent
The student lost their book.
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awkward expression
The storm had the effect of causing millions of dollars in damage.
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Capital letter needed
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/
lower case letter needed
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not clear
She liked pears with apples but not apples.
NC
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avoid clichés
“Keep your nose to the grindstone.” (a popular saying, expression, etc.)
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NC
CL
close up this space
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frag
˄
insert a word, letter, punctuation
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parallel structure needed
My income is bigger than my wife.
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//
prep
·
delete
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sentence fragment
Simon and his roommate from college.
frag
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or ̓
rep
RO
/
//
new paragraph needed
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avoid prepositions at the end of a sentence
That is a situation that I had not thought of.
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punctuation mark incorrect or missing
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use quotation marks
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repetitious use of a word or expression
The car was blue in color.
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run-on sentence
Mary came to the party she brought her sister Janet.
RO
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space needed between words
Mark reads a/lot of books.
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spelling is incorrect
Anne invited all her freinds to the party.
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TS
WC
transpose letters or words
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tense shift
John runs the marathon yesterday.
TS
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word choice needs improvement
Todd did good and felt well.
WC
WC
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DQ
J
LD
MS
Pass
QI
T
S
direct quote is needed
junk list word
lacks development / support of ideas
manuscript error
passive voice
quote incorporation is weak
transitional word or phrase needed
streamline / condense