Corrections Instructions

Correcting errors in grammar, diction, punctuation, and style is tedious work.  Ultimately, though, this process of identifying and fixing problems in grammar and mechanics may be the most valuable learning you do in this course.  All the red ink—the "Bedford numbers," the golden rule and nugget numbers, the "simple stuff," "word problems," and quotes and documentation items I mark on your papers—this red ink is intended to help you recognize specific local problems in your writing that need improvement.  My aim in corrections is that your mastery of the crucial "basics" improve.  Rightly or wrongly, people judge you by the relative correctness of your writing.  If you want people to respect what you say, it's imperative that you express yourself clearly and "correctly."

Corrections is a three-step process:

1)  Identify the errors.  For each number marked on your paper, refer to the appropriate key: "GR" numbers refer to golden rules; "N" numbers refer to nuggets; "QD" items are matters of quotation and documentation, "SS" notations refer to the "simple stuff" of formatting and presentation, "WP" refers to "word problems," and all other numbers (usually numbers and lower-case letters) follow the Bedford Handbook system of marking errors.

For "Bedford numbers," refer to the marking notations handout (distributed in class, also available via the preceding link—online students see the "document sharing" tab on our course's home page). Most of the Bedford items are self-explanatory. If I note "27d" above the word "want" in the sentence, "Yesterday, Bill want (27d) to play video games," for example, you will see on the marking notations handout that 27d indicates, "Do not omit -ed endings on verbs" and understand that "want" should be "wanted": "Yesterday Bill wanted to play video games." If you do not understand a particular terms or problem indicated in the Bedford system—if you do not understand what a "dangling modifier" is, for instance (12e), you should refer to any writing handbook available to you. Most of the errors indicated in the Bedford system can be found in the Guide to College Writing, and I have placed a copy of the Bedford Handbook on reserve in the Stratton Taylor Library. You can also find explanations and descriptions of common grammatical issues online. One web site I would especially recommend is the Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL) site, with searchable contents available at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/.

2)  Record the errors.  The second step in the corrections process is recording each golden rule infraction, each nugget problem, each quotes and documentation error, each "simple stuff" and "WP" problem, and each Bedford number and letter individually in the appropriate charts on the Corrections Worksheet.  Record each error separately as many times as it occurs in your essay: if there are three GR4's, four 17a's, two 17c's, one 17e, and two 17f's, the "GR4 box" in the Golden Rule Chart should read "GR4, GR4, GR4," and the "17-26 box" in the Bedford chart should read: 17a,17a,17a,17a,17c, 17c, 17e, 17f, 17f. 

3)  Correct the errors.  Most importantly, in an entirely new typed draft—not on the graded draft—fix each of the problems.  Indicate any changes you make in the new draft by highlighting or underlining in ink what has been changed.  For formal papers and other typed work, it will be easier for you to indicate these changes as you make them on the computer—highlight the changes as you make them by making them bold: waiting until you print the new draft and then having to go back and underline or highlight each change after the fact is needlessly time-consuming.

Exceptions: problems you don't have to address in corrections:
You must correct only the problems marked with a number or one of the notations from my handouts (GR2, N2, QD2, SSH, WP, e.g., and Bedford numbers [11a, 16b, 33e, etc.]).  You need not address any non-grammatical or non-"mechanics" problems indicated either by my comments in the margins or in my typed remarks on your paper: addressing these problems is rewriting more than "correcting."  I encourage you to rewrite, but with corrections I am concerned only with your improving specific local problems—not the larger matters of focus, structure, development, argumentation and style.  You need not address problems noted with the Bedford number 4 by itself, either, because most problems in paragraphing require rewriting or revising, not the simple correction of errors.

What you turn in: 1) the corrections worksheet, 2) the corrected draft with changes highlighted, and 3) the original graded draft.

Composition I and II students: turn in and keep corrections in your formal paper folders, which should contain all drafts of all essays, including corrections, all semester long.

Want help?  I am always happy to go over specific problems in corrections with you in the office, and you can always call me or email me with specific questions also. You can get help, too, from the writing tutors in Baird Hall 207.


For in-class essays written in longhand only:
Instead of copying the entire essay over for corrections, you may, after following steps one and two above, simply copy each error as it occurs in the essay originally onto separate paper, accompanied by the GR, N, QD, SS, WP or Bedford number marked on the essay, and then write the "problem" word, phrase, or sentence with the error(s) corrected.  Use common sense here: copy only as much of the original sentence as is necessary to indicate what the error is, and rewrite only as much of the sentence as is needed to indicate how you are correcting the problem.  If one sentence contains three errors, rewrite the sentence only once, correcting all three errors in the same single rewritten sentence.  If you do correct handwritten in-class essays by this method, copy and correct the errors in the order in which they occur in the original essay.