Common Proofreading Symbols
Common Proofreading Symbols & Abbreviations
|Symbol/ |Meaning |Example / How to Fix |
|Abbreviation | | |
| |A circle around something indicates where |Possible solutions: |
| |an error has occurred in a word / sentence.|Add punctuation (comma, period, semi-colon or question mark) |
| | |Spelling error (will be accompanied by “sp”) |
| | |If at the end of a word – could be missing an apostrophe to make possessive (i.e. |
| | |Mark’s pen) – accompanied by “poss” or a contraction (i.e. You’re a great student.) |
| | |If first letter of sentence is circled – missing capitalization |
| | |If at the end of a word – most likely a missing “s” or an “s” that needs to be deleted |
| | |If at the beginning and end of a sentence or word – could be missing quotation marks |
| | |[pic] |
| |insert something (usually a word left out | |
| |or punctuation) | |
| | | |
| | | |
| |change/ switch order of |[pic] |
| |word(s) or punctuation |Solution: change the order. For example: |
| | |Punctuation should always go inside quotation marks: “Hello”, he said. |
| | |Rewrite: “Hello,” he said. |
| |close up this space; join words into one |[pic] |
|/ |Between words or sentences - a space needed|Fifth/Avenue |
| |here | |
|sp |spelling error |This sentence is flaude with two mispellings. |
| | |Solution: Rewrite - flawed, misspellings |
|¶ |begin new paragraph |[pic] |
|[pic] |no paragraph |[pic] |
|line through |Delete |Solution: delete the letters or words. |
|letters or words | |The painting was verye round in shape. ---> The painting was very round. |
|/ (or) ---- | | |
| | Indicates “To” or “shift” |e.g. from past tense present tense. |
|(arrow) |Used to indicate when a shift has occurred |Solution: double check that things are consistent – in this case, that all of your verb|
| |in writing in verb tense or pov (see below)|tenses agree throughout your writing piece and/or are appropriate to the context of |
| | |your sentence. |
|? |confusing wording or reference, missing |She was very at that. |
| |critical information, or cannot read |(very WHAT and WHAT???) |
| |handwriting |Often accompanied with underlining. |
|r-o |run-on sentence |Raoul tried his best this time that wasn't good enough. |
| |(when two sentences are incorrectly |Rewrite: Raoul tried his best, but this time that wasn’t good enough. |
| |combined into one without proper use of | |
| |conjunctions) | |
|c/s |Comma splice, or comma fault—two sentences |To fix a run-on: use a semi-colon or period between them or add a conjunction. |
| |joined incorrectly with a comma. ( This is |We are not allowed to think for ourselves, that privilege is reserved for |
| |a kind of run-on sentence.) |administrators. |
| | |Rewrite: Change punctuation or add because before that. |
|frag |Sentence fragment |The tragedy here that such a love could not be consummated and that one so young should|
|frag- V |(A sentence without a subject or verb) |be cut off just at the dawn of life. |
|frag - S |Frag-V – verb missing |(Missing verb) |
| |Frag-S – subject missing |Rewrite: The tragedy here is that . . . |
|p/a |pronoun/noun |No matter what the detergent commercials say, no woman really enjoys mopping their |
| |agreement |dirty kitchen floor. |
| |or |Pronoun agreement: the noun that the pronoun is referring to, “woman”, is singular, so|
| |pronoun agreement (between pronouns) |the pronoun that agrees with it must be singular. |
| | |Solution: Rewrite - change "their" to "her" |
| | |The student lost their book. |
| | |Rewrite: The student lost his book. (p/a) |
| | |You'll have to do this on one's own time. |
| | |“you” = personal pronoun “one” = impersonal pronoun. All pronouns should agree in |
| | |whether they are singular/ plural and if they are personal or impersonal pronouns |
| | |Rewrite to be consistent: You’ll have to do this on your own time. |
|pron ref |problem with pronoun reference - unclear |My aunt and my mother have wrecked her car (Whose car?) |
| |who pronoun is referring to | |
|s/v |subject/verb agreement |The increase in the number of nations in some continents are amazing. |
| | |(Subject-verb agreement: The subject is “increase”, which is singular, so the verb |
| | |should be "is") |
| | |The piano as well as the guitar need tuning. |
| | |Rewrite: The piano…needs tuning. (s/v) |
|vt |verb tense problem |e.g., They had ran out of gas. (Use simple past tense "ran" or use past participle |
| |/ wrong verb tense |"run" after helping verb "had.") |
| | |e.g., Hamlet saw the ghost and is confused about how to get revenge. |
| | |(Inconsistent tenses: stay in present tense or past tense to discuss the events in a |
| | |work of literature.) |
|ab |a faulty abbreviation |She had earned a Phd along with her M.D. |
| | |Rewrite: PhD |
|adj |improper use of adjective |Much Americans travel to Europe. |
| | |MUCH modifies only uncountable nouns, while MANY modifies only countable nouns. |
| | |Rewrite: Many Americans travel to Europe. |
|adv |improper use of adverb |He is a quietly man. |
| | |Adverbs can't modify nouns. Rewrite: He is a quiet man. |
| | |John talks quick. QUICK, which is an adjective, needs to be changed to QUICKLY, the |
| | |adverb. |
|prep |Improper use of preposition |Put the lamp in back of the couch. |
| | |Rewrite: use "behind" instead |
|cap |faulty capitalization (either missing or |We spent the Fall in Southern spain. |
| |improper use of capitalization) |Rewrite: fall (common nouns not capitalized) |
| | |Spain (proper nouns must be capitalized) |
|cliché |Trite or overused expressions which make |Rephrase in plain but not trite language. |
| |your writing lack freshness. |e.g., The hero returned from the picnic tired but happy and that night he slept like a |
| | |log. |
|conj |Improper use of conjunction, or needs a |I like ice cream so I like candy better. |
|coord. |conjunction |Rewrite: replace “so” with “but”, which fits the meaning of the sentence best. |
|sub. |coord = coordinating conjunction |I will sometimes indicate which kind of conjunction I think you need – coordinating or |
| |sub = subordinating conjunction |subordinating. |
|dm |dangling modifier or verbal phrase |Sweet and innocent, evil deeds destroy the life of the heroine. |
| | |Rewrite: Evil deeds destroy the life of the sweet and innocent heroine. |
| | |Returning evil for evil, no lasting good can be done. (Who is returning evil for |
| | |evil?) |
| | |Rewrite: Returning evil for evil, the hero can do no lasting good. |
|hom |Improper use of a homonym |e.g. There all going to the mall on the bus. |
| | |Rewrite: They’re (They are) |
|mm |misplaced modifier |Modifiers are words or phrases that tell us about words such as nouns or verbs. |
| | |Modifiers are like teenagers: they fall in love with whatever they're next to. Make |
| | |sure they're next to something they ought to modify! |
| | |e.g. He barely kicked that ball twenty yards. (Barely is referring to how far the ball |
| | |went) |
| | |Rewrite: He kicked that ball barely twenty yards. |
|/ / |problem in/lack of parallel form |When listing things in a row, they should be in the same FORM to keep it consistent, or|
|(or) parall. | |parallel. |
| | |The French, the Italians, Spanish, and Portuguese |
| | |Rewrite: The French, the Italians, the Spanish, and the Portuguese |
| | |In spring, summer, or in winter |
| | |Rewrite: In spring, summer, or winter (preposition “IN” used only at beginning of |
| | |sentence) |
| | |(OR) In spring, in summer, or in winter |
| | |I love running, jumping, and to skip |
| | |Rewrite: I love running, jumping, and skipping. |
| |change from passive voice to |Verbs are said to be either active (The executive committee approved the new policy) or|
| |active voice |passive (The new policy was approved by the executive committee) in voice. In the |
|p/v a/v | |active voice, the subject and verb relationship is straightforward: the subject is a |
| | |be-er or a do-er and the verb moves the sentence along. In the passive voice, the |
| | |subject of the sentence is neither a do-er or a be-er, but is acted upon by some other |
| | |agent or by something unnamed (The new policy was approved. By what or whom?). |
| | |It’s almost always better to use active voice. |
|rep |unnecessary repetition |The car was blue in color. (“in colour” not necessary – blue is obviously a colour! () |
| |(often accompanied |The characteristics of the main character are reflected in the characteristics of the |
| |with underline) |minor characters. |
| | |Rewrite: find synonyms to replace same words!! ( |
|too cas |Language /voice / tone too casual |Solution: use more formal language or a more formal approach to the writing / subject |
| | |matter |
|poss |Incorrect use of or missing possessive |By adding an apostrophe and an “s” we can manage to transform most singular nouns into|
| | |their possessive form (indicating that something belongs to someone or something): |
| | |the car's front seat |
| | |Bartkowski's book |
| | |a hard day's work |
| | |But be careful! The possessive of some words have NO APOSTROPHE because they are also |
| | |contractions. For instance: |
| | |It’s – it is (contraction) |
| | |Its – belonging to “it” (possessive ) |
|pov |Error in Point of View |This indicates an error the use of POV, usually because there has been an incorrect |
|1st |(first person, second person, and third |change in point of view. Writing needs to be CONSISTENT in POV. MOST formal writing |
|2nd |person) |should be in THIRD PERSON as it is the most OBJECTIVE. |
|3rd | |e.g. “I”, “me”, “we”, “us” = 1st person pov pronouns |
| | |“you”, “yours” = 2nd person pov pronouns |
| | |” he”, “she”, “they”, “one” = 3rd person pov pronouns |
| | |The first step in making a sandwich is finding the best bread. One should always |
| | |choose a fresh variety, preferably from a bakery. Then you should choose your |
| | |favourite cheese. |
| | |One – third person |
| | |You – second person. |
| | |Solution: double check that all pronouns are THIRD PESON and change those that are not |
| | |consistent. |
|awk |awkward wording (expression |The football player has had many broken noses, with which he ends up looking like a |
| |or construction) = |prizefighter. |
| | |Rewrite: The football player has broken his nose so often that he looks like a |
| | |prizefighter. |
| | |Solution: needs to be re-worded |
|vague |An idea is not expressed in precise terms. |e.g., What most impressed me about the story was the author's descriptive language. |
| | |Solution: add more precise words – i.e. Her vivid, sensory diction or his simple, |
| | |concrete words? |
|ww |wrong word |Could indicate use of wrong word – ie: |
| | |By the time they reached Phoenix they had spent their food allotment and were faced |
| | |with the gloomy aspect of starving to death. |
| | |(The writer probably meant "prospect.") |
| | |Could also indicate the use of inappropriate/colloquial (too casual or slang) language.|
| | |Use colloquial language or slang only when quoting dialogue or creating a special |
| | |effect. |
| | |e.g., The story is over with when the guy comes back really worn out after a lot of |
| | |cool adventures. |
| | |Rewrite: The story ends when the hero returns, exhausted after many exciting |
| | |adventures. |
|wc |word choice |Usually indicates the need for a more sophisticated word choice to vary vocabulary . |
| | |Solution: Get thee to a thesaurus! Find synonyms to replace the word OR there may be a|
| | |need to re-word the sentence to make a better word fit your meaning. |
|wdy |wordy |Solution: Be more concise; cut out unnecessary words. |
| | |e.g. He was justified in trying to straighten out his mother on her backward ideas |
| | |about her attitude toward politics. |
| | |Rewrite: He was justified in trying to reform his mother's outdated attitudes about |
| | |politics. |
|trans |Needs a transitional word or phrase |Solution: add a linking word or words to help with the flow of writing. YOU MAY NEED |
| | |TO REORDER YOUR IDEAS and CHANGE PRONOUNS, etc. |
| | |Molly worked at McDonalds in high school. She is a lawyer. |
| | |Re-write: Molly worked at McDonalds in high school, but now she is a lawyer. |
| | |To make a grilled cheese sandwich, get out bread and cheese and butter. |
| | |Re-Write: To make a grilled cheese sandwich, first get out bread, then butter it on |
| | |both sides before putting on your favourite cheese. |
|comb |combine sentences |This occurs when there are too many simple sentences, there is too much repetition of |
| |(see below for references to sentence types|ideas between sentences, or ideas from different sentences would work better in the |
| | |same sentence. |
| | |I like grilled cheese sandwiches. They are gooey. They are delicious. They are my |
| | |favourite kind of sandwich. |
| | |Solution: combine ideas so that they flow together more naturally and are more |
| | |concise. |
| | |Rewrite: Grilled cheese sandwiches are my favourite kind of sandwich because they are |
| | |gooey and delicious. |
| simp |Types of sentence |There are three main kinds of sentence structure: the simple, compound and complex |
|comp |structures |sentences. When there is an error in sentence structure, or a need for more variety, |
|cx |simple sentence = simp |these abbreviations will be used, such as when I want to encourage you to combine ideas|
| |compound sentence = comp |into a compound or complex sentence. |
| |complex sentence -CX | |
|re: |regarding, referring to, about |This is an abbreviation I use when making comments to you: |
| | |e.g. Watch out in your writing re: verb tense. |
|i.e. (or) ex. (or) eg |for example |These are abbreviations I use when making comments to you. I usually make a comment |
| | |then provide an example. It could also indicate that I would like YOU to provide more |
| | |examples. |
|w/ |with |This is an abbreviation I use when making comments to you |
| |change |This triangle is an abbreviation I use when making comments to you to mean “change” |
| |Therefore |This is an abbreviation I use when making comments to you to mean “therefore” |
|w/o |without |This is an abbreviation I use when making comments to you |
|Explain |Explain this point in more detail |Solution: add to what you have said with more evidence and detailed explanation. |
|Expand |Expand on this point |Develop the idea / point with further examples or evidence. |
|Quote |Needs a direct quotation from the text |Solution: find a direct quotation from the text to demonstrate the point you are |
| | |making. |
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