Marking Papers for Grammar and Mechanics
Carolyn
Haynes
Director of Windate Writing Center
Miami University (Ohio)
Writing should improve
students’ learning of course material
and encourage them to think critically
about it. Sometimes, that thinking is
muddled when a student commits certain
grammatical and mechanical errors. Below
is an easy way to deal with grammatical
and stylistic errors that will (1) discourage
your students from repeating them; (2)
nudge your students toward independence
in editing their work; and (3) allow you
to do the real work of the course.
The Harbrace
College Handbook
would reprimand a student who wrote: “When
confronted with these facts, not one word
was spoken,” to avoid “dangling
elliptical adverb clauses.” This
is advice that we would all do well to
follow, but few students grasp. Another
way to handle a grammatical or mechanical
error is the following:
-
Put a wavy line under the offending clause and a quizzical arrow (arrow accompanied by a question mark) pointing to “word.” Don’t bother to explain the rule. Instead, refer students to a handbook. In marking the sentence in this way, you are saying, “I don’t understand what this clause modifies, and your argument is consequently weakened.”
Surprisingly, experts disagree about how
to mark errors, but nearly everyone would
agree that over-marking does more harm
than good. Students may productively attend
to half a dozen wavy underlines on a page,
but are likely to shut down when confronted
by twenty. Focus on those errors needing
to be improved the most. Try using the
following marginal notations to mark these
most serious mistakes:
Marginal
Notations
-
AGR (agreement)
The number of fatalities have been increasing in recent years.
-
FRAG (fragment)
The man crying his eyes out in the rain.
-
MM (misplaced modifier)
Concentrating on his studies, the music was not even heard.
-
CS (comma splice)
Sports makes a person strong and brave, on the other hand, art makes a person gentle.
-
REF (reference)
Chris sent Bill a letter every day while he was in the hospital.
-
PRED (illogical predication)
The double helix model of DNA is an example of hard work.
-
//STR (parallel structure)
I like running, cycling and to swim.
-
Wordy (in need of condensing)
-
Choppy (a rough ride for the reader from one idea to the next)
-
Unclear
-
Awkward (tortured syntax)
-
Good
Symbols
-
Circles locate errors confined to one or two words (such as a misspelled word).
-
Wavy underlines note larger errors.
-
Checks praise good word choices.
-
Straight underlines highlight well-put phrases or sentences.
-
Arrows and question marks point out puzzling connections of words.
www.muohio.edu/cwe