Guide to Marks on your paper

A Guide to Marks on Your Graded Paper

When I provide feedback and/or grade your papers, I will usually code any errors using the marks in the first column. This chart explains what those marks mean, and what you can do to avoid that type of error in the future.

General issues
The mark on your paper	What it means	What you should do about it
√ (a checkmark)	This is well done!	Congratulate yourself!
Stet	Leave as is (literally, “let it stand” in Latin)	Nothing. You don’t have an error here: I marked something before I looked at it carefully and realized it was already correct.
Trans.? -or- Transition	Problem with transition between ideas	Review the sentence or paragraph for a clear logical flow of ideas. You may need to add transitional expressions, phrases, or a complete transitional sentence to make sure that your shifts between ideas are clear.
Logic	Problem with ideas relating to each other clearly	Review the sentence for the overall logic of your statement. Usually logic errors can be fixed by either adding some ideas, rearranging some ideas, or removing some ideas that confuse the sentence.
Redundant	Unnecessary repetition of ideas	You have repeated ideas unnecessarily by adding words or phrases that are synonymous (or virtually synonymous) with each other. For example, if you state, “Dogs and canines are man’s best friend,” the phrase “and canines” is redundant because it repeats the same idea that the word “dogs” conveys. Be more concise with your word choice.
Format	Error with or missing element of the required formatting	Check to make sure which format is required for the paper (MLA/APA), and then review your paper for format inconsistencies. This problem may also be marked as “font” or “spacing.” SeeThe Pocket Prof for review of MLA formatting and APA formatting expectations.
¶ dev.	Problem with overall development of paragraph	Introductory and concluding paragraphs are typically 5-7 sentences (though they can be much longer), and body paragraphs are typically at least 10 sentences, with 2-3 well developed supporting details (“well developed” = multiple sentences per detail). Review the paragraph and revise for underdeveloped ideas and/or missing topic/concluding sentences. See “Paragraphs” and “The Perfect Paragraph” for a discussion of paragraph structure.
Sentence structure problems
The mark on your paper	What it means	What you should do about it
SS	Sentence structure problem	Review the overall sentence to make sure that you don’t have a run-on sentence, a comma splice, a fragment, or some other larger sentence problem caused by an unclear subject or main verb. I usually use this to indicate a sentence structure problem that is caused by multiple structure issues (i.e. a combination of the structural issues listed below). Review this site for common sentence patterns and structures.
Frag. -or- fragment	Incomplete sentence	You are missing a subject, a main verb, or a complete thought: revise the sentence to include the missing piece. “Running late to school because a tree blocked the road.” = fragment (it’s missing a subject and complete verb) “Diedre is running late to school because a tree blocked the road. = complete sentence See this page on fragments for more examples and exercises.
Run on	Run-on sentence	You have two or more complete sentences joined without appropriate punctuation or conjunctions. Break your sentence up into simpler chunks of “subject-verb-complete thought” sections and put periods after each one, or use other methods of joining independent clauses. “He tried calling three times no one answered.” = run on “He tried calling three times, but no one answered.” = corrected with comma and coordinating conjunction. See the section titled “Run ons” on this page or the section titled “Run ons” on this page for more examples and exercises.
CS	Comma splice	You have 2 independent clauses (complete sentences) put together with just a comma: fix this by either adding a conjunction after the comma, putting a period instead of the comma and starting a new sentence, or using a semi-colon instead of the comma. See the section titled “Comma Splices” on this page for more examples and exercises.
DC, IC	Missing comma between a dependent clause followed an independent clause	Review the most common subordinating conjunctions (for example: since, if, when, while, although) and the rule for using commas between dependent and independent clauses. If the dependent clause comes 1st, you should use a comma before the independent clause starts. If the dependent clause comes 2nd in the sentence, you should not use a comma between the 2 clauses. Follow this example: “When it rains, Sandra usually carries on umbrella to work.” = DC,IC. “Sandra usually carries an umbrella to work when it rains.” = IC DC. See the section titled “Subordinating Conjunctions” on this page for more examples and exercises.
IC DC	Unnecessary comma between an independent clause followed by a dependent clause	See the explanation above for “DC, IC.” ee the section titled “Subordinating Conjunctions” on this page for more examples and exercises.
IC, + IC	Missing comma between two independent clauses joined by a conjunction	Review the rules for joining two independent clauses. If you use a comma, make sure you have a conjunction (FAN BOYS) following the comma. If you use a conjunction (FAN BOYS) to join two complete sentences, make sure you have a comma before the conjunction. When correctly done, this type of sentence should look like this: “Bryan walks in the mornings, but he runs in the afternoons if he has time.” See the section titled “Coordinating Conjunctions” on this page for more examples and exercises.
; circled (semi-colon circled) -or- IC; IC.	Problem with semi-colon usage	Semi-colons are most often used between two independent clauses. If your semi-colon is circled, check the clause before and after the semi-colon: revise the clauses to make sure each one can stand on its own as a sentence. See the section titled “Semicolons” on this page for more examples and exercises.
IC; CA, IC.	Missing punctuation for sentence structure	If you use a conjunctive adverb (CA) between two independent clauses, a semi-colon should go before the conjunctive adverb, and a comma should be placed after the conjunctive adverb. For example: “Tracy likes cats; however, she she is allergic to cat dander.” See the section titled “Adverbial Conjunctions” on this page for more examples and exercises.
MC or mixed construction	multiple sentence structure types used together illogically	With a mixed construction sentence, you have started the sentence in one way, but you haven’t completed the sentence in a way that logically completes the structure. For example: “When dogs guard their food because are aggressive it’s a problem.” The first clause in the sentence is dependant, so the second clause should complete the thought for the whole sentence. The second clause is technically incapable of completing the sentence (there’s no subject), but also, its ideas don’t clearly finish the thought of the first clause. The third clause is tacked on without proper punctuation. A revision of this sentence might say: “When dogs guard their food, they appear aggressive: it’s a problem dog owners should watch carefully.”
Compound predicate	Unnecessary comma between subject and verb (most commonly)	A sentence with a compound predicate has two separate verbs that connect to a single subject. For example, “Bryan walks in the morning and runs in the afternoon.” The subject of both verbs, “walks” and “runs,” is “Bryan.” The most common error with compound predicates happens when students put a comma between the predicates: in this situation, it appears that the second predicate is meant to be an independent clause and the student has forgotten to include a subject in the clause. (That is, it appears that the student meant to use an “IC, + IC” construction, but the second clause is missing a subject.) If both verbs connect back to a single subject, the sentence will most commonly not use a comma between the two predicates. If the sentence has three or more predicates, then the rule for putting commas in a list applies: “Bryan walks in the mornings, runs in the afternoons, and sometimes swims at night.”
Punctuation issues
The mark on your paper	What it means	What you should do about it

IW -or- IP/W	Missing comma after an introductory word or phrase	Most introductory words or phrases will have a comma at the end of the word/phrase and before the subject of the sentence is stated. For example: “Also, Stacy spent 6 months in Spain.” “In her youth, Stacy spent 6 months in Spain.”
S is circled at the end of a word -or- an ‘S (or S’) is circled -or- Apos. -or- Poss.	Problem with showing possession	Review the rules for using apostrophes to show possession. Be careful when demonstrating plural possession and when showing plural words which aren’t possessive: these are common places for errors. See the section on this page about apostrophe use for more examples and exercises.
Contr.	Problem with showing a contraction	Review the rules for using apostrophes to show contractions. The apostrophe is inserted to show where the contracted word drops a letter. For example, when “do not” is contracted to “Don’t,” the apostrophe is inserted in the same place that the letter “o” is dropped.
Appositive	Missing commas around appositive word or phrase	When a word or phrase is renaming/describing a person or thing, that word or phrase is set off with commas. For example: “Detroit, a city in Michigan, is famous for its auto factories.”
Rel. clause	Problem caused by punctuation or reference issue with a relative clause	Relative clauses use who/which/that before a subordinate clause, and they need to be punctuated properly. Relative clauses that are unnecessary to the larger meaning of the sentence should be marked off with commas. For example, “Steve, who is a former Marine, is planning to open a restaurant.” In this example, the fact that Steve was a Marine has nothing to do with his restaurant plans, so therefore the clause is unnecessary and should be set off with commas. Relative clauses that are necessary to the larger meaning of the sentence should not be set off with commas. For example, “People who often run red lights may accidentally kill pedestrians.” In this example, the relative clause (“who often run red lights”) is important/necessary to the sentence: the writer is discussing how certain types of people/behaviors lead to dead pedestrians. Not everyone kills pedestrians: people who run red lights do, and therefore the clause is necessary to the meaning of the sentence.
CF -or- a circled comma	Unnecessary comma present or missing a necessary comma	You either used a comma in a way that interrupts a normal sentence structure or you were missing a necessary comma. Review the discussions of comma use above: if you are not using a comma for a specific reason, you should generally avoid using it. Likewise, there are several ways commas are used to separate ideas within sentences: learn the basic ways so that you add commas appropriately.
List	Problem with comma use in a list	When you have three or more items, you should use commas between them in a list. Two items do not require a comma between them. For example, this is incorrect: “He likes vanilla, and chocolate ice cream.” It should state: “He likes vanilla and chocolate ice cream.” For the sake of clarity, always use a comma between the last two items of a list, as in this example: “He like chocolate, cookies and cream, and vanilla ice cream.” Without the last comma, notice how this list is confusing: “He like chocolate, cookies and cream and vanilla ice cream.”
Interrupting phrase/word	Missing commas around a word/phrase that interrupts the core parts of an independent clause	Often taught as “interruptors,” these words or phrases come in the middle of the core components in an independent clause, and therefore they should be set off with commas to show that they interrupt the key ideas of the sentence. For example, a simple independent clause might state, “Mary regularly eats cake for dessert.” If this sentence is in the middle of a paragraph about Mary’s diet, the writer might want to include “however” in this sentence. If the word/phrase comes in the middle of the sentence, the whole word/phrase would be set off with commas: “Mary, however, regularly eats cake for dessert.” If “however” were included at the beginning as an introductory word (see IW/IP in this chart), it would be set off with a comma: “However, Mary regularly eats cake for dessert.”
^with punctuation added	Missing necessary punctuation	The sentence needs a comma, apostrophe, semi-colon, period, hyphen, or quotation marks where this is noted. Review the rules for the use of punctuation that was suggested.
Word choice issues
S–V	Subject-verb disagreement	Review the relationship between your subject and verb: make sure that a single subject has a verb with a singular form, and a plural subject has a verb with a plural form. See the section on this page about subject-verb agreement for more examples and exercises.
V.T. -or- V.F.	Verb tense or verb form error	Review your verb use to make sure your tense doesn’t shift unnecessarily. Also, make sure your verb is in the correct voice (active or passive) or mood (indicative, imperative, or subjunctive) to convey your ideas appropriately. See the section on this page about verb tense/form errors for more examples and exercises.
Agr.	Pronoun-antecedent agreement error	The pronoun you use does not match the gender/number of the noun/antecedent it refers to earlier in the sentence. Revise the pronoun so that it matches the antecedent. See the section on this page about pronoun-antecedent agreement and the section on this page about antecedent agreement (and case issues) for more examples and exercises.
Ref.	Unclear pronoun reference	The pronoun you use does not clearly refer back to a specific noun: often the best fix in this situation is to replace the pronoun with a noun. For example, instead of “he,” you would use “Jason” instead. See the section on this page about antecedent agreement for more examples and exercises.
Case	Pronoun case error	The pronoun you use is in the wrong case for the situation in which you use it. Pronouns that are used for the subject of a sentence should be in subject case (for example: “I,” “he,” “they”). Pronouns that are used in the sentence as a direct object, an indirect object, or the object of a preposition need to be in object case (for example: “me,” “him,” “them”). Possessive pronouns (for example: “his,” “her,” “their”) should be used to show ownership. Revise your pronoun choice to match the way you are using it in the sentence. Example sentences: Subject case: Mom and I like soup. Object case: Mom made some soup for me. Possessive case: My soup is now cold. See the section on this page about case issues for more examples and exercises.
Art.	Missing article	Articles like “a,” “an,” and “the” are commonly used in sentences to distinguish between a general reference to a noun (“a car”) and a specific reference to a noun (“the car”). When these articles are missing, the reader has to guess whether the writer is using the noun to point to a specific car (“The car broke down”) or all cars generally (“A car can break down at any time”). Review the sentence to determine whether the nouns used need an article in front of them to specify a general or specific type. See the section on this page about article use for more examples and exercises.
^with suggested text added	Missing necessary language	Review the sentence for completeness of your ideas and/or the use of complete idiomatic phrases. Idiomatic phrases = the way certain things are commonly expressed (see the “idiom” entry below).
Parallelism	Words do not match each others’ forms in a list	Parallelism is usually a problem in lists. Items in a list are often tied logically to a verb phase, so if all the items don’t have the same form, the list won’t logically make sense. For example, this sentence demonstrates a problem with parallelism: “He wasn’t able to call home and wished his dad happy birthday.” The first verb structure is “wasn’t able to call.” The second verb, “wished,” isn’t parallel with (i.e. match the form of) “to call”: one is a past tense verb, and the other is an infinitive form of a verb. To hear problems with parallelism, you often need to repeat the full verb phrase next to each item in the list. In this sentence, most people would hear “He wasn’t able to called” as an error. The corrected sentence would read: “He wasn’t able to call home and wishhis dad happy birthday.” See the section on this page about parallellism and this page about parallel structures for more examples and exercises.
Idiom	Awkward words or phrases (based on common English usage)	When something is “unidiomatic,” that means that the words or phrases are jarring because they don’t match the usual phrases used in that language. Students who are using English as their second or third language often have difficulties with idioms since each language has its own idioms, and translating one language’s idiom to another language often doesn’t work. For example, in English it is very common to say “late for” as a phrase: “I am late for school.” If a writer stated, “I am late of school,” that would be unidiomatic since “late of” isn’t a normal phrase in English.
WC	Word choice	The word you use does not appear to be the word you intend to use, based on the logic of the sentence/paragraph/paper: look up the word in a dictionary and replace it as appropriate. Also, be careful of common word choice errors, like “its” vs. it’s,” “then” vs. “than,” and “since” vs. “sense.”
Syntax	Word order	The order of your words doesn’t follow the usual order most English speakers would use, and therefore your sentence is jarring and possibly unclear. For example, “The blue truck ran a red light intentionally” would have word order problems if it were presented as “The truck blue ran a red light intentionally.”
Adj. vs. Adv.	Misuse of adjective for adverb -or- Misuse of adverb for adjective	Adjectives describe nouns (the red house) and adverbs describe verbs or adjectives (walkingslowly or completely red house). Revise your word choice so that you describe the noun/verb/adjective appropriately. See the section on this page about adjectives vs. adverbs and this additional page about adjectives vs. adverbs for more examples and exercises.
SP	Spelling	The word you use is either misspelled or a homonym that you chose instead of the appropriate word. Look up the word you used in a dictionary and replace it with the appropriate word.
MW	Missing word	Based on the ideas of your sentence, you should have added a specific word to complete your thoughts: review the sentence’s ideas to identify the missing word.
Pl. -or- S. vs. Pl.	Implied plural word shown in single form -or- Implied singular word shown in plural form	Make sure you proofread your paper carefully. Phrases such as “one of the ______” expect a plural word in the blank.
	Close an unnecessary space	This is usually a spelling error: you put an unnecessary space between 2 words that are usually written as one word. It may also indicate other unnecessary spaces in the document.
	Delete letters or text	Double check your spelling and/or your phrasing for clarity. If you have redundant language, I will mark it out like this in order to help you eliminate repetition.
	Invert the order	This error usually means that you have the punctuation in the wrong place or that the order of your words is confusing. Review the order of your punctuation and/or words and reorder as necessary to make sure that you are expressing your ideas clearly.
Use of triple underline beneath specific letters -or- individual letters at the beginning of a word are circled	Capitalization problem	Review the rules for capitalization. Proper nouns (the formal name for a person, place, or thing) always need to be capitalized. Acronyms (like NASA) also always need to be capitalized. Common nouns do not need to be capitalized. If you are unsure whether something needs to be capitalized or not, look it up in the dictionary or on the web.
Dbl. neg.	Double negative	Using a “double negative” causes confusion because the result of two negatives is a positive statement. For example, stating “I don’t not want to go to the party” indicates that the speakerdoes want to go to the party. For the sake of clarity, eliminate double negatives. For example, a revision of that sentence might state, “I have hesitations about the party, but I do want to go.”
Imperative	Problem with verb structure or using commands instead of indicative statements	Verbs usually fall into clear types called “moods”: 1. imperative (a command; for example, “Close the door!”) 2. indicative (a statement of the world as it is; for example, “He closed the door.”) 3. interrogative (a question; for example, “Would someone close the door?”) 4. subjunctive (a wish or hypothetical statement; for example, “If the door were closed, it would be warmer in here.”) These moods affect the verb structure in the statement, so check your verb structure first. Your paper may also have been marked with “imperative” if you shifted into giving commands to the reader without a clear reason to do so. In that case, revise your sentences to use indicative mood.