Abbreviations for On-line Review

The following list includes all the abbreviations that are used on our class pages and that I will use in commenting on your work. Feel free to use them yourself in your peer reviews. I recommend that you print out this list and keep it handy.

Abbreviation	Meaning
9a, 12e, etc. OR K&M	The Pocket Handbook, by Laurie G. Kirszner and Stephen R. Mandell. A number or a number followed immediately by a letter refers to a specific chapter of sub-chapter of the handbook. These numbers correspond to the numbers on the blue tabs at the top of each page, which can be easily used to look up specific references.
TS 3, TS 4, etc.	Checklist for Revising Thesis Statements at the end of The Thesis Statement.
Art	Article error. That is, you have misused one of the grammatical articles: "a," "an," or "the."
C	Capitalization error. You have either failed to capitalize a letter that should be capitalized or capitalized one that shouldn't be.
Cit	Citation error. You need a parenthetical citation at this point or the one you have is incorrect in some way. (31 in K&M)
DIH	The Discovering Ideas Handbook
DIHG	The Discovering Ideas Handbook Glossary. This is an alphabetical glossary. Click on the first letter of the word in question to go to the page where it is listed.
B	Appendix B, Usage Review, beginning on p. 278 in K&M. This is an alphabetical glossary. If a word or phrase is marked "B," look it up in this list to see what the problem is.
LU	Look Up. Look up the word in a good college dictionary. It isn't the right word for what you are trying to say.
P	Punctuation (Sometimes you aren't sure how to correct it, but you think the punctuation is wrong.)
Red	Redundant. You have said the same thing twice.
S	Spelling
S/P	Singular/Plural error. You have used the singular form of the word where you want the plural, or the plural where you want the singular.
S/WW	Spelling/Wrong Word. It is a correctly spelled word (and hence your spell checker will not tell you it is misspelled), but it is the wrong word because of the way it is spelled. Often it is a homonym, a word that is pronounced like the one you want but is spelled differently. For instance, "their" for "there" or "affect" for "effect."
WW	Wrong Word
W	Word error, not wrong word. Usually it means you have omitted a word or have inserted an unnecessary word.
WD	Working draft
X	An error, nature unspecified. Usually, it should be fairly obvious. Sometimes it's a small error that doesn't have a name or a section in the book. Sometimes, it is a repetition of an error made several times previously and you're tired of writing it out.

Basic Format for E-Mail Review

[. . .] When commenting either on someone else's e-mail message or on an HTML document, place your comments in square brackets. They are located just to the right of the letter "P" on the keyboard. Your comments will stand out more clearly if you make them in capital letters. Just use the Caps Lock, right below the Tab key, and EVERYTHING YOU WRITE WILL APPEAR IN CAPITALS. I usually use all caps for comments inserted in the text of the document and then return to normal type for overall comments at the beginning or the end of the document.

Placement of Abbreviations

Wherever possible, place your comment immediately following the word or sentence that it refers to. This will make it easier for the writer to understand how to correct the problem. If a word is misspelled, try to place the [S] immediately following the misspelled word. If the error involves a whole sentence or a series of words, place the comment at the end of that sentence.

Discovering Ideas
Palomar College
jtagg@palomar.edu
This page was last edited: 01/05/09