Feedback and Commentary Shorthand

There are a few new abbreviations/acronyms I'm planning on using in feedback on blogs. Here are some clarification descriptions about what I mean:

Flow: When I use the term flow, I generally mean that a sentence is choppy because of word choice, missing words, or even a repetition that would appear in multiple sentences. To fix this issue, proofread your text out loud: 90% of the time students "catch" the error when they hear their writing.

PR: Proofreading needed. Maybe there are spelling errors, or undercapitalization (think "i"), broken words that should be combined (my self vs. myself), homonym issues (their vs. there), and so forth. Let me know if you want to learn some cool proofreading tricks to help catch these mechanical issues (ruler, out loud, back-to-front, and team reading methods are some of my favorites).

FORM: The formatting seems to be off. There could be too much white space between paragraphs, or no spacing, or neon fonts, or everything in italic (which strains the eyes).

PP: Issues with plagiarism appear. This is generally an unintentional thing (forgetting quotes, or forgetting to name the source of the quote), but because everything you post is submitted for academic grade, it's important to know that if you cut/paste, you must quote. 100% of the time. In addition, you need to name the source and hyperlink or create an old-fashioned reference.

BH: Bury that hyperlink! Place it inside a word so that there are no interruption in the flow of your text.

MORE: I want to see more details. You might be making a good point about an issue, such as "There is little doubt that we have spent billions in Iraq" but how many billions? On what exactly? Blogs are small spaces with which to do big things: convince your audience that you have researched, found good sources, and can easily back up a main argument with specifics.

REF: Look at your references--are you following MLA or APA style? Do you have the 5 main elements of a reference: author, title of piece, URL, copyright date, and access date. In addition, did you name each source in the text where you used it?

What I will do for the last 5 weeks is use these shortcuts at the end of a post, in parenthesis, like this: (RES, PR). This way, I'm giving you an indication of suggestions that aren't content related, but I'm making you do the legwork in reviewing your piece to find them. Of course, I'll always be available to help one-on-one as well.