Download Rule Britannia - Model High School

Major Convention Errors: Symbols, Symptoms, Fixes
Some convention errors are minor, but those listed here confuse or distract a reader, and hurt an
essay’s effectiveness and grade. As you ready for revision, look for these in your marked paper.
1. NS indicate Nonstandard English – slang, direct address (“you”), abbreviations, “hisself,”
“he don’t,” chattiness – all this and more is discussed on page 13 of this Syllabus.
2. SP means Spelling Error, especially names of books, characters, places. LOOK IT UP!
3. WW indicates a Wording problem or a Wrong Word – you’ve phrased something
awkwardly, or you’ve used “their” for “there” or “too” for “to,” or something like that.
4. CAP indicates a Capitalization Error. By now you should know this stuff – proofread!
5. TP indicates an error in Title Punctuation.

Underline or italicize stand-alone works (books, films, magazines, CDs); don’t do both.

Titles of shorter works (songs, poems, essays, stories, articles) go “in quotation marks.”

Exceptions: many sacred works (The Bible, The Koran) take no such punctuation.
6. TS indicates Tense Shift. Use past tense to discuss a historical event. Use present tense to
describe action within a work of literature. Be consistent, or your reader gets dizzy.

BAD: Beowulf is composed 1400 years ago, then a monk wrote it down. As the story
unfolded, Beowulf kills monsters and saved his people, then died and is buried.

GOOD: Beowulf was composed 1400 years ago, then a monk wrote it down. As the
story unfolds, Beowulf kills monsters and saves his people, then dies and is buried.
7. FR indicates a Fragment, a pseudo-“sentence” that cannot stand alone; it lacks a subject or
verb, or is subordinated somehow. Fix by adding words, or combining with other sentences.

BAD: Aaron despises Belinda. Because she bench presses more than he does.

GOOD: Aaron despises Belinda because she is bench presses more than he does.
8. RO indicates a Runon, two or more sentences improperly joined or incompletely separated.
Just inserting a comma makes a Comma Splice! Use conjuction or semicolon, or a period.

BAD: Jaron beat the computer at chess the computer won at tennis. (Runon)

BAD: Jaron beat the computer at chess, the computer won at tennis. (Comma Splice)

GOOD: Jaron beat the computer at chess, but the computer won at tennis. (conjunction)

GOOD: Jaron beat the computer at chess; the computer won at tennis. (semicolon)

GOOD: Jaron beat the computer at chess. The computer won at tennis. (separation)
Major Convention Errors (continued)
9. REF indicates a problem with Pronoun Reference. If one must reread your paper to
figure out what “he” or “it” or another pronoun means, your writing is confusing; be clear.

BAD: With Claudius and Hamlet, he kills him as he sleeps. (Who sleeps? Who dies?)

GOOD: Claudius kills the sleeping Hamlet as soon as they are alone.
10. PA indicates Pronoun-Antecedent Disagreement. Some constructions SEEM plural but
are not. Constructions like “a person,” “each student,” variations on “one” and “body”
(anyone/anybody, everyone/everybody, no one/nobody, someone/somebody) are singular, and
need singular pronouns, just as plurals need plurals. Mixing these up creates the error.

BAD: Everyone is entitled to their own opinion on how they should live. (mixup)
NOTE – you KNEW “everyone” was singular because you used singular verb“is”!

GOOD: Everyone is entitled to his/her own opinion on how s/he should live. (all
singular)
 GOOD: Individuals are entitled to their own opinions about how to live. (all plural)
You can use Ctrl+F to detect this error: type in those plural pronouns (they, them, their,
themselves) and then check to be sure that they refer only to plural antecedents like “people.”
11. SV indicates Subject-Verb Disagreement. Again, singular nouns need singular verbs;
plurals need plurals. Problems arise with inverted or interrupted constructions like these:

BAD: There is many reasons people fail. Beowulf, like other folks, fail sometimes.

GOOD: There are many reasons people fail. Beowulf, like other folks, fails sometimes.
12. PUN indicates Punctuation error. Most common are comma or apostrophe errors.

Use commas if reading reveals a pause or shift of emphasis, often after an adverbial
phrase or clause: “In other words, he is grumpy.” Learn to listen for this.

Apostrophes go in contractions and possessives.
o EXCEPTION: “It’s wise to keep a gun in its holster.”

Apostrophes are placed AFTER “s” in plural possessives, but are NOT used to
indicate plurals themselves: “The girls’ locker room is for girls only.”
Again, this is not about grammatical fussiness. Certain minor errors – split infinitives, for
instance – may be marked on your paper, and will call for correction; but they will not be
penalized in your grade. But the errors listed here can cause confusion for a reader, and so hurt
your essay, and so hurt your grade. Learn to avoid them!