| What I say about your paper |
What I mean when I write that |
What you can do to fix the mistake(s) |
| Writing
style mistakes |
You
have made multiple errors according to the required writing style rules for the course,
such as incorrect use of first-person pronouns. |
Review
the Writing Style Rules.
|
Grammatical,
or English usage, errors
|
You
have made multiple, serious mistakes according to the rules of English
grammar, such as the use of sentence fragments.
|
Check the
online Guide to
Grammar and Writing or Dr. Diane Thompson's
Grammar and Editing Help.
|
| Incorrect
verb tense |
You did not use the past tense
in all of your writing as required by the Writing Style Rules. |
Change your verb tenses accordingly. |
| Cap |
Incorrect
capitalization |
Check the
online Guide to
Grammar and Writing or Dr. Diane Thompson's
Grammar and Editing Help. |
| Unclear (Sometimes
written as just [?]) |
Statement,
phrase or wording is just not clear to me. (I don't know what you mean.) |
Read the sentence out loud
to yourself (or to someone else) and examine every word to make sure it reads exactly as
you think it should. |
| Awkward (Sometimes
just abbreviated as [K]) |
Statement,
phrase or wording is awkward (Could be wordy or poor word choices.) |
Read the sentence out loud
to yourself (or to someone else) and examine every word to make sure it conveys the precise
meaning that you wish. |
| Relevance |
Statement or phrase is
of uncertain relevance to the assigned question. |
Re-examine your sentence to
make sure that it is absolutely necessary to answer the assigned question.
|
| Paper
lacks proper paragraph structure. |
Your paper does not have
distinct parts (introduction, paragraphs, conclusion) as required by
the History Paper Guidelines. |
Make corrections
per the
History Paper Guidelines. |
| No
thesis |
Your paper lacks a
clear statement of thesis, i.e., your answer to the assigned question and how your paper
will be organized. |
Add a
proper thesis statement. |
| Spelling |
You have made one or
more spelling mistakes in your paper. |
Check your
dictionary or dictionary.com. Do not
rely on your spell-check program to catch all spelling errors. (It is good practice
NOT to misspell your instructor's name.)
|
| Vague |
I do not understand
what you are saying because your statement is too general or broad. |
Read the sentence out loud
to yourself (or to someone else) and examine every word for specific meaning. |