Abbreviations for Common Errors

At the start of each school year, reproduce and distribute this handout. It lists abbreviations the teacher can place in the margin of students’ essays. After essays are graded and returned, require each class to correct errors. Assuming essays were typed, students make corrections on their work using a brightly colored pen. The teacher can then efficiently check corrected work that is returned during class or the following day.

Incentive: reduce grade for uncorrected essays.

• cs     comma splice
• frag                        fragment
• r-o                          run-on sentence
• s/vb agr                subject-verb agreement
• pro/ant agr          pronoun-antecedent agreement
• pro ref                   pronoun reference
• t                              tense
• sp                            spelling
• p                              punctuation
• cap                          use capital letter
• lc                             use capital letter
• ww                          wrong word
• awk                         awkward wording
• il                              illegible
• R                              rewrite
• X                              incorrect
• ONW                       omit needless words *
• NP                            new paragraph
• C                               combine words / sentences

• William Strunk, Jr. and E. B. White, The Elements of Style, 4th ed, Pearson, 1979, 23.