Abbreviations & shorthand comments used for marking papers:
| sp | spelling incorrect |
| ww | wrong word: usage is incorrect |
| l.c. | letter(s) should be lower case |
| cap. | faulty capitalization |
| punct. | faulty punctuation |
| concl.? | your conclusions are missing: what do you conclude from the preceding examples and observations? (what have you just proved?) |
| vague pr. ref. | vague pronoun reference: using "this" or "it" instead of more specific terms; using any pronoun without an obvious antecedent |
| pr.-ant. agr. OR agr. |
pronoun-antecedent agreement OR shift in person and number |
| subj.-v. agr. | subject-verb agreement |
| frag | sentence fragment |
| cs | comma splice |
| fused/run-on | two sentences fused together without appropriate punctuation or conjunction |
| dm | dangling modifier |
| vague! | you need to give more specific details or use a more specific word |
| coll. | colloquialism: slang and colloquialisms are best avoided when writing a formal university essay (I use the catch-all "coll." for slang and colloquialism although they're not exactly the same) |
| awk. | awkward sentence |
| || | problem with parallel structure in your sentence |
| ¶ | indicates that a new topic is being introduced and should be in a new paragraph |
| ? | huh? (this sentence is confusing) |