Avoid the Deadly Sins of Writing
ag.
No agent for a gerund or an infinitive.
awk.
Awkward expression.
bpr
Broad pronoun reference (use of a pronoun to refer to a whole clause or sentence).
cliché
An expression that has long been overused.
coll.
Colloquialism: a word or expression appropriate to conversation, but not to formal writing.
con
Contraction: Avoid using contraction (for example, “didn’t”) in formal prose.
jargon
Use of the specialized slang language of a discipline.
mod.
Misplaced modifier: often a present participle or gerund (both in -ing form) modifying nothing.
pas.
Passive construction.
punct.
Incorrect use of punctuation.
ref.
Pronoun referring to no preceding noun.
rep.
Repetition, or redundancy.
sh.
Shift in number.
si
Split infinitive, for example, the infinitive “to go” written as “to [something] go.”
sp
Spelling mistake.
s/v agr.
Subject and verb disagree.
tense
Needless shift from present tense to past, or vice versa.
wc
Word choice: selection of an inappropriate word for the context.
wordy
Wordiness.
Sentence structure
S
Too many simple sentences, each marked “S”.
// ism
Faulty parallelism: a balanced construction that remains unbalanced.
fs
Fused sentence: two independent sentences run together.
frag
Sentence fragment.
Logic
Non Sequitur /ˌnɒnˈsek.wɪ.təʳ /
Non Sequitur is Latin for “it does not follow,” meaning a discontinuity in reasoning coherence, illogical statement or transitions between paragraphs.
Title
Titles of short poems and stories go in quotation marks; only the titles of published books should be underlined or italicized.
Underdeveloped Introduction
An introduction should be a fully developed paragraph of at least four sentences. It should state a thesis and contain reference to the topics that you will be discussing in the body of the essay.
Paragraphing
Topic sentence (at the beginning) and summary sentence (at the end) both indicating, in general terms, the main point of the paragraph and containing some kinds of reference to your thesis; each paragraph should be developed to at least four sentences.
