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Editing Symbols for ESL Writing

Use this chart whenever you do writing corrections for this class. Keep it handy!
Symbol Definition
A/P
confusion between active and passive voice:
Sam washed the dishes. (active)
The dishes were washed (by Sam). (passive)
Sam were washed the dishes. (???)
art
incorrect or missing article (a, an, the)
___
___
problem with capitalization
ed/ing
incorrect participle form:
The movie was very frightened.
The students were very boring in class today.
frag
a sentence or clause is incompleteremember that (1) every clause reuires a
subject & a verb and (!) dependent clauses are not complete sentences
" li#e to study grammar because it is useful.
" li#e to study grammar. $ecause it is important.
" li#e to study grammar because is important.
ger/inf
gerund or infinitive error
" li#e wal around %reenla#e.
&e are thin#ing about to go on vacation.
pron
pronoun error! either the wrong form was used, or what noun the pronoun
is replacing is unclear
" love my parents. He is very helpful.
'y parents they are helpful.
P
punctuation is missing or incorrect (comma, apostrophe, uestion mar#, etc.)
ll S"#
Parallel structure$ words or phrases (oined by and, or, etc. should be similar
(parallel)
in form: )*aura en(oys hiking, cooking, and gardening.+
Pl/S
Plural/singular noun confusion (,id you forget the -s? "s the plural form
irregular? "s the noun a count or non.count?)
/e has many friend.
She taught us a lot of informations.
#"S
#un%toget&er sentence: more than one clause in a sentence but not
(oined by a
con(unction, relative pronoun, etc. The clauses in a run.together sentence may
be (oined with a comma or without any punctuation at all.
To fi0 an 1TS: 2ither separate the clauses into two sentences, or choose
a grammatical way to combine them:
She studied for the test, however, she didn3t do well.
She studies for the test. /owever, she didn3t do well.
She studied for the test4 however, she didn3t do well.
She studied for the test, but she didn3t do well.
sp
spelling mista#e5add t&is word to your spelling list and learn to spell it
correctly

S'A
Subject%verb agreement$ a verb must agree with its sub(ect
"
an error with the tense of a verb
vf
an error with the form of a verb
v(
&here is the verb? " can3t find it. (This error could also be called a fragment
because a clause without a verb is not complete.)
wf
word form5use the correct part of speech to do the (ob
(
/uh? Unclear5" don3t understand5try to e0plain it another way
)o%or%)ie List
%ood writing ta#es time and reuires editing s#ills. 6ou must be able to follow these basic
rules consistently whenever you write:
7lways add an *s to simple present tense verbs with a third.person singular sub(ect
(he,
she, it).
$y this level, you should #now the name of t&e tense you are using and t&e reason
you chose that tense for your sentence. (There should always be a reason4 you
shouldn3t (ust be guessing and hoping you3re right8)
9se a base form (the basic form of a verb you find in a dictionary) after a modal (will,
can, should, etc.) or in an infinitive (to : base form).
+E , +ase -orm is not possible in 2nglish 4 there is no tense formed that way. Since
it is never correct, you should never use it.
2very clause should have a subject and a verb. "f you want to have more than one
clause in your sentence (and you do), combine them with con(unction or relative
pronoun.
Use your dictionary so that your writing has very few spelling errors.
'a#e sure that your paragraph has a clear topic sentence and that you support and
develop this main idea in the rest of your paragraph.
-ollow t&e directions.
&hat is the difference between a clause and a p&rase?
clause5 ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
phrase5 ;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

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