Common Revision Symbols and Abbreviations

Some English instructors use these symbols and abbreviations to guide students during the revision and editing stages of the writing process.

ab abbreviation

ad adjective or adverb

agr agreement

awk awkward expression or construction

cap capital letter

case case

cliché cliché

coh coherence

coord coordination

cs comma splice

d diction

dm dangling modifier

emph emphasis

frag sentence fragment

fs fused sentence

gloss glossary of usage

hyph hyphen

inc incomplete construction

irreg irregular verb

ital italics

jarg jargon

lc lowercase letter

mm misplaced modifier

mood mood

nonst nonstandard usage

org organization

p punctuation

' apostrophe

: colon

, comma

-- dash

. period

? question mark

" " quotation marks

// parallelism

pro pronoun

run-on run-on (fused) sentence

slang slang

sp spelling

subord subordination

tense tense

trans transition

unity unity

wordy wordy writing (conciseness)

ww wrong word