ESL 222 Correction Symbols Guide Wong

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Correction Symbols

VT verb tense Example: Yesterday, I do my homework. “Do” is incorrect; it should be past tense “did.”

VF verb form The verb tense is okay but the form of the verb is not. Example: I have bring a lot of new clothes. “Have bring” is the incorrect verb form. It should be “have brought.”

WW wrong word

Example: I have many thinks to do this weekend. “Thinks” is the wrong word. It

should be things.

WF word form

Example: She received some beautifully roses for Valentine’s Day.” Beautifully”

is an adverb, but here you need an adjective. The adjective form is “beautiful”

WO word order

The words are not in the correct position.

Example: He didn’t know where was he. The words “was he” are not in the right

order. The order should be changed to “he was.”

WP wrong preposition

An incorrect preposition is used or a preposition has been added when one is not

needed.

Example: Are you happy to attend to school? “To” is incorrect here. No

preposition is needed after attend for this sentence.

# number, singular/plural

Example: Some of the student gave us some very bad advices.

An –s was used to form the plural noun. “Men” is an irregular plural, so it never

has an –s. “Advice” is an uncountable noun, so –s is not used on

uncountable/non-count nouns.

Sp spelling

ESL 222 Correction Symbols Guide Wong

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Example: There are two main charaters in the movie. The correct spelling is

character.

TV transitive verb

The sentence needs an object after the verb.

Example: Marcus wants from his parents. “Wants” is a transitive verb, so it

requires a direct object. What does Marcus want from his parents? A correct

answer could be Marcus wants a present from his parents.

Pron pronoun problem

Example: The boy hurt his knee when it went skateboarding. “It” is an incorrect

pronoun to refer to the boy. “He” is the correct pronoun.

Coord Coordination-coordinating conjunction missing or incorrect coordinating

conjunction

Two independent clauses have been joined without a coordinating conjunction or

with an incorrect one.

Example: It was too hot, we put on the air conditioning.

In this example, we cannot join two independent clauses with a comma, so we

should use the conjunction “so” after the comma.

Example: I really like Calvin, and I don’t like his brother.

In this example, and is incorrect because the ideas of contrasting each other.

The conjunction but should be used instead.

Trans Transition-transition missing or incorrect transition

Example: They will remodel their kitchen. However, they would like to get some

new cabinets and a new stove.

However is incorrect here because the second sentence does not contrast the

ideas of the first sentence. It adds information to the first one.

Rep Repetitive- the writing repeats the same words and/or ideas again without

saying anything new

ART article

a/an/the is missing. Use a and an for non-specific countable singular nouns and

the for specific singular or plural noun.

ESL 222 Correction Symbols Guide Wong

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Example: He gave his girlfriend hug on Valentine’s Day. “Hug” is a countable

singular noun here, so “a” is needed before it.

SV subject verb agreement

The subject and verb do not agree.

Example: Her family don’t live in the U.S. “Don’t” is the helping verb for a plural

subject, but here the subject is singular. The correct verb is “doesn’t.”

Frag fragment

The sentence is not a complete thought.

Example: When we ran out of soap. This is a dependent time clause and need

another independent clause to complete it.

R.O. run-on sentence

There are 2 or more sentences that are not connected correctly.

Example: Men like to shop quickly women like to browse and take their time.

There are two independent clauses, but there is no connector or punctuation.

One way to correct would be, Men like to shop quickly, but women like to browse

and take their time.

C.S. comma splice

A comma is used to connect two or more independent clauses.

Example: Shelley is competing in the Olympics, she expects to take the Gold for

Norway.

One way to correct this mistake is to put a FANBOYS after the comma. Shelley is

competing in the Olympics, and she expects…

^ missing word

A necessary word is missing from the sentence. Often, it could be a missing

subject, missing verb, punctuation etc.

Example: In the story ^tells his wife that he loves her. A subject is missing

before “tells.”

SS or Unclear Sentence structure is not clear.

Off topic Sentences do not support your topic sentence.

ESL 222 Correction Symbols Guide Wong

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CH coherence

Ideas need to be in a logical order. A sentence needs to be moved into another

place in the writing.

CO cohesiveness

Ideas need to be connected. The readers become confused because the

sentences do not appear to be related to each other or there is some missing

explanation.

P punctuation

A comma, period, question mark, colon, quotation marks etc. has either been used incorrectly or not used when needed.

Example: I wasn’t happy, because I didn’t sleep much last night. Here, there

should be no comma in the sentence.

Cap capitalization

A word should be capitalized OR a word has been incorrectly capitalized.

Example: When i watch a sad movie, i cry. The pronoun “I” is always capitalized.