Correction Comments

ABRUPT: Your paragraph or your essay ends without a satisfactory conclusion.

AWK: Awkward wording or confusing sentence structure, revise for clarity.

ANALYZE: You need to explain how or why the rhetorical device/literary strategy contributes to the development of the
passage.

CLARIFY: Your point is not clear: explain how or why.

CONNECTION: The connection between your ideas in this paragraph or the ideas in the successive paragraphs is not
clear.

DEVELOP: Your idea needs more development.

ELABORATE: Provide details or use a more specific word choice.

INACCURATE: Reread the excerpt and rethink your interpretation or your understanding of the passage.

INEFFECTIVE/IRRELEVANT: The idea or sentence does not contribute to the essay’s/paragraph’s purpose.

PROMPT?: You are not addressing the issues that the prompt demands.

PROOF: This part needs specific evidence.

PT: Poor transition between ideas, between quotations and your own words, or between paragraphs.

RE RE: (redundant) You have stated the same idea repeatedly.

RETHINK/REREAD: Reread the excerpt and rethink your interpretation or your understanding of the passage.

REVISE: A problem exists with your sentence structure; your point is difficult to grasp.

THESIS ?: You are not addressing the thesis, or the thesis is inadequate to meet all of the demands of the prompt.

TS: The paragraph lacks a sufficient topic sentence.

TS?: The contents of the paragraph do not support the topic sentence; either remove the unrelated material from this
paragraph or revise the topic sentence so that it relates to the content in the paragraph.

WW: Wrong word; check spelling or find the appropriate word.

X: You have made a mistake in spelling, punctuation, or grammar .

??: I have little or no idea what you are attempting to say; make your point clearly.

#: If I put a number in the margin, I am identifying one of the 10 Common Writing Errors.

“ ”: Missing quotation marks

√+ : well done
√ : adequate
√- : insufficient; poorly done