Marginalia

editing symbols/marks i make on your papers, what they mean, and how to address them

"It is an old observation that the best writers sometimes disregard the rules of rhetoric. When they do so, however, the reader will usually find in the sentence some compensating merit, attained at the cost of the violation. Unless he is certain of doing as well, he will probably do best to follow the rules. After he has learned, by their guidance, to write plain English adequate for everyday uses, let him look, for the secrets of style, to the study of the masters of literature."

--William Strunk, Jr., The Elements of Style

AGR -- Agreement.  The two highlighted words/phrases do not agree with one another; in other words, they conflict/contradict each other somehow.  This usually happens with singulars and plurals:

example: People who hate their jobs hates getting up in the morning.  (the subject "People" is plural and does not agree with the singular verb "hates")

or with tenses:

example: He is late to pick me up but acted like it was my fault we missed the first play of the game.  (the present tense verb "is" does not agree with the past tense verb "acted")

(Pro-Tip: the best way to catch agreement errors is to read your sentences out loud; your ears are much more likely to catch agreement errors than your eyeballs)

 

AWK -- Awkward.  You have expressed a thought in a distractingly odd way.  You have not necessarily broken a specific grammar/usage rule.  This can be a hard problem to fix, as there often is not a specific rule I can point to and say "here is the problem."  This is a common problem for non-native English speakers as a function of fluency and learning how to naturally use slang and idiomatic expressions in the language.

(many of the links in the "Word Choice" section at the bottom of this page will also help with awkward phrasing issues)

 

CS -- Comma Splice.  You can not use a comma to join two complete sentences:

example: I love basketball and football, I don't care for soccer.

 

FRAG -- Fragment.  You have written an incomplete sentence; the sentence is missing a subject and/or the subject's verb:

example: The day I first met the love of my life.

example: When you came over to help me study for the final exam.

 

IQ -- Isolated Quote.  You cannot begin and end a sentence with a quote; every sentence must contain some of your own words.  With an isolated quote, you are essentially letting someone else write a complete sentence in your essay.

illegal: "The business of America is business" (Coolidge).

legal: Calvin Coolidge once quipped that "The business of America is business."

 

NS -- Non Sequitur.  This is a Latin phrase that refers to a statement or conclusion that does not logically follow from the previous statements or reasoning.  Generally, when marked on your papers, this refers to a problem with the sentence-to-sentence flow within a paragraph:

example: I don't like oatmeal-raisin cookies.  Kobe Bryant is my favorite basketball player of all time.

The Reader has no idea what the second sentence has to do with the previous; this is very disruptive to the flow of your writing.  Remember: every sentence you actually write out equals dozens of sentences inside your brain that do not get written out.  Behind each of your sentences is a whole thought process the Reader can not see.  If there is a connection between these sentences, it needs to be clarified in the sentences so that the Reader can follow your train of thought.  Otherwise, this is often a sign of an unfocused paragraph (local unity).

 

RED -- Redundant.  You have unnecessarily repeated a word, phrase, or idea.  Sometimes repetition is good, such as reinforcing your main idea throughout an essay, but needless or excessive repetition can be distracting or give the impression of poor organization.

 

RO -- Run-On.  You have written a run-on sentence; two or more complete sentences are mixed together without the proper punctuation or sentence structure:

example: I love the holidays I get to see my grandparents and cousins!

 

SPEC -- Specify.  You have used a general/generic/vague term.  Generally speaking, specifics are much better for the Reader.

Weak: I hurried and ate my breakfast so I could be on time.

Better: I gulped down a bowl of cereal so I could be on time.

Strong: I inhaled a bowl of Lucky Charms so I could be on time.

The Reader can't visualize "breakfast," especially considering different people eat different things for breakfast, like cereal or omelets or cold pizza or yogurt or nothing at all.  General terms force the reader to fill in the blanks, and this is a huge problem because 1) most Readers aren't going to work that hard, and 2) if they do fill in the blanks, they are unlikely to guess correctly.  For example, if you write that someone had a "nice car," you might be referring to a BMW 7 Series, but the Reader might be thinking of a Bentley or a Porsche GT3 or a Honda Accord (which is much nicer than riding a city bus or a donkey, for example).

 

V. -- Vague.  Essentially same problem as SPEC above.  Read the entry for SPEC for description and examples of the problem.

 

WC -- Word Choice.  The highlighted word(s) are somehow inaccurate/unfair; there is some disconnect between what you are trying to say and the word(s) you have chosen to express that particular thought:

example: Most students hate school.  ("most" is a specific number, meaning "more than 50%"; do not use specific numbers in writing unless you provide a source)

example: Nobody likes school.  (If the Reader can think of even one exception, the Reader has proof that you are either not thinking very clearly or not being very honest; this damages your ethos/credibility in Reader's mind)