| | |
| action verb | Rather than a copula verb, use an action verb for impact/clarity. |
| agr | mistake with subject-verb agreement |
| awk | A phrase or sentence is awkward (awkward = not smooth) |
| cas | This language is casual, not formal (not FAE). |
| comb | Combine sentences. |
| conj | This is a conjunction (don’t start a sentence with it). |
| FAE | This is not formal academic English |
| gr | grammar mistake |
| link | this logic link is wrong, or at least not the best choice |
| nom | Nominalize this phrase (make it into a noun phrase) |
| non-std | this phrasing is not standard |
| not true | This sentence/phrase, as written, is untrue. e.g. In this paper, 36 randomly selected subjects were interviewed. |
| par | imperfect parallel structure e.g. Some New Zealanders have been forced to live in cars, garages and under bridges. |
| prox | This chunk of text is not in close proximity to the chunk it’s strongly related to. |
| red | redundant (some information has been repeated, e.g. The temperature was also recorded as well.) |
| ref | pronoun reference/article reference problem (i.e. What does this pronoun/article refer to?) |
| rep | repetitive |
| rephr | Rephrase this. |
| run-on | This is a run-on sentence; it’s too long to be readable. |
| sp | spelling mistake |
| S-V distance | The subject and verb are dangerously far apart. |
| tense | You have used the wrong verb tense (past/present/future) e.g. Yesterday I am going to Tokushima. |
| topic-stress | The first part of a sentence (or paragraph) should contain TOPIC (background, or back-linking); the last part should contain STRESS (what you want to reveal or emphasize) |
| usage | This combination of words is not standard/not central. e.g. The country was fragmented into many domains. |
| vag | This phrasing is vague or ambiguous. e.g. The dispute weakened the position of the government. |
| voice | Change from the passive voice to active voice, or vice versa. e.g. The ball was hit by the batter. (Here ‘voice’ means change to “The batter hit the ball.”) |
| windy | This writing is run-on, it could and should be much shorter. |
| word | Find a better word for your meaning. |
| Add something here (often an article). |
| + verb | Add a verb here. |
Lawrie Hunter 