Mrs Helen Rath St Margarets Anglican Girls’ School November 2019

English as an
Additional Language

Marking Code
What is a marking Code?
This marking code is a metalinguistic code designed to help you edit
your own work. It is a set of symbols and letters that refer to errors
in your writing, or suggestions for improvement.
Some relate to specific grammar points, others to spelling,
punctuation, meaning, and expression.
The code is beneficial in helping you to notice your errors and give
you a hint how to correct them yourself. Metalinguistic codes may
help you develop your knowledge of how language works and help
you to improve your writing.
It’s important to keep in mind that your teacher is not an editor. Your
teacher will not point out every error, and it is still up to you to edit
your writing to the best of your ability, and to use digital tools such as
Grammarly, Word and online dictionaries to assist you in editing your
own work.

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Mrs Helen Rath St Margarets Anglican Girls’ School November 2019

Contents
What is a marking Code? ................................................................ 1
Word Form (WF) and Tense (T) ....................................................... 3
Word Choice (WC)........................................................................... 4
Vocabulary (Voc) ............................................................................. 5
Subject-Verb Agreement (S/V) ........................................................ 5
Expression (Exp) .............................................................................. 6
Uncountable and countable nouns (UN) ......................................... 6
Confusing (Wavy underline or yellow) ............................................ 7
Spelling (Sp) or circle ....................................................................... 7
Missing Word (^) ............................................................................. 7
Space ()........................................................................................ 7
New Paragraph //............................................................................ 8
New Sentence / ............................................................................... 8
Punctuation (P) ............................................................................... 8
Plural or Singular Nouns (#) ............................................................ 8
Language Style (Straight Underline or blue) ................................... 9
Great ideas (Tick ) ....................................................................... 9

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Mrs Helen Rath St Margarets Anglican Girls’ School November 2019

Word Form (WF) and Tense (T)

Many words have a family where one word can take on many forms,
and the verb form can have many tenses. If you look up discriminate
you will find that it has a big family:
Verb Tenses: discriminate
discriminates
discriminated
discriminating
Other Forms: Noun discrimination
Adjective discriminative
discriminatory
discriminating
Depending on the structure of your sentence, you will need to use
the correct form and tense.
Example:
 People who discriminate against others must learn to be more
respectful.
 We must work hard to reduce discrimination in the world.
 The law may not be inherently discriminatory, but it’s often
applied unequally in our society.
 We cannot let this discrimination continue.
 Many people are still discriminated against.
 We must stop discriminating against others.
 Discrimination is evident in the suspicion that hovers over
Agnes.

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Mrs Helen Rath St Margarets Anglican Girls’ School November 2019

Word Choice (WC)

You have used a word incorrectly but there could be many reasons.
Collocation.
In English words often go together or form fixed relationships which
can be strong or weak. Strong collocations are where the link
between the two words is quite fixed and restricted. Weak
collocations are where a word can collocate with many other words.
These are often prepositions.
Example:
They accused the university which isWC racism.
The idea of diversity was being introduced freshly.WC
Fix:
They accused the university of racism. (‘accused of’ is a
collocation)
The idea of diversity was being introduced recently.
or
The idea of diversity was being freshly introduced.

Similar word, different meaning. The word is incorrect for this

context, but it’s very similar in spelling to the correct word.
(Grammarly is good for help with contextual spelling)
They want to peruseWC their dreams. (pursue)
Peruse: to look through. Pursue: to chase, or strive towards.

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Mrs Helen Rath St Margarets Anglican Girls’ School November 2019

Vocabulary (Voc)
Vocabulary is a suggestion, not an error. Sometimes in English, it’s
important to be specific when analysing or describing. Saying
something is good or bad, effective or ineffective, positive or
negative isn’t enough sometimes.
Example:
Little Red Riding hood is represented negativelyVoc in the
story.
In this case, ‘negatively’ is quite general. It just means bad. But since
we know much more about this character.
Fix:
Little Red Riding hood is represented as weak and nieve
in the story.
Subject-Verb Agreement (S/V)
Subject-verb agreement is a grammar rule which says if the subject is
single, the verb should be single (is, plays, has). If the subject is
plural, then the verb should be plural. (are, play, have)
Example: (Subjects are underlined, verbs are bold)
She is capable of achieving her goals. (single noun)
If they are capable of achieving their goals, they should
be given every opportunity. (plural noun)
When people play more sport, they become fitter and
healthier. (plural noun without an s)
If the university wants the best students, they should
prioritise merit over all else. (single noun group)

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Mrs Helen Rath St Margarets Anglican Girls’ School November 2019

The employees demand better working conditions.

(plural noun group)
Australia relies on a strong education and mining sector.
(single proper noun)
Some of my family are going to the beach. (collective
noun group acting as individuals)
The team is playing well this season. (collective noun
group acting as one entity)
As you can see, there are so many situations, but the solution is easy
because if it’s wrong, then there’s only one other choice.
Expression (Exp)
The expression here is strange. Re-write the sentence or chose
another way to say this.
Uncountable and countable nouns (UN)
Some things like water cannot be counted. most abstract nouns can
be measured, but not counted.
I can ask for, “two waters,” in a restaurant in spoken English, but
what I really mean is, “two glasses of water.”
In written English, you should always say, “some water.”
Same as I can say “I have had two loves in my life,” but what I really
mean is, “I have loved two people.” When writing I should say “The
love I have for my kids is immeasurable.”
Anything that should be measured, and not counted is an
uncountable noun.
Example:

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Mrs Helen Rath St Margarets Anglican Girls’ School November 2019

In the twenty-first century, the number of

discriminationsUN decreased.
It’s hard to fix this error by changing one word. There are a couple of ways to fix this
sentence.

Fix:
In the twenty-first century, discrimination has decreased.
or
In the twenty-first century, the incidence of
discrimination has decreased.
Wrong: “many loves” “few loves”
Right: “much love” “a lot of love” “little love” “no love”
Confusing (Wavy underline or yellow)
The sentence is confusing and I’m not sure what you mean, or the
grammar of the sentence is sounds strange. There may be more than
one error. Consider re-writing the sentence completely and talk it
through with a friend if you need to.
Spelling (Sp) or circle
Spelling error. Grammarly can help with that.
Missing Word (^)
There is a missing word here. It could be a:
o determiner (the, a, an)
o ‘to be’ verb (are, is, was)
o preposition (in, of, by, at, on)
Space ()
Triangle: add a space.
Triangle with cross through it: remove a space. 
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Mrs Helen Rath St Margarets Anglican Girls’ School November 2019

New Paragraph //
Your topic has shifted, and you should begin a new paragraph. You
might only need to go to a new line, however, you should check to
see if you should write a linking sentence or use a cohesive tie.
New Sentence /
You should begin a new sentence here. It might be as simple as
inserting a full stop and a capital letter, but you may have to do more
than that. Check to ensure it’s a complete sentence.
Punctuation (P)
You have some incorrect punctuation. Check to ensure you’re using
correct punctuation according to the rules of standard Australian
English, because American style punctuation is quite ).
For example, let’s look at this direct speech.
“Jack, did you clean your room?” asked mum.
“No,” said jack.
“Well go do it then.” She walked away shaking her head.

When speech is followed by a speech tag said, asked, yelled, etc you
can use ? ! ,
But if the speech is followed by an action, you should use .
“This is blatant racism,” one person commented on
Weibo.
If you are quoting someone, always put all punctuation inside the “ ”
Plural or Singular Nouns (#)
You should swap the noun from plural to singular, or vice versa.

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Mrs Helen Rath St Margarets Anglican Girls’ School November 2019

Language Style 😊 (Straight Underline or blue)

Great sentence, beautiful words, creative expression. This is a focus
on language style and expression.

Great ideas 😊 (Tick )

Great ideas. This is a focus on your analytical, persuasive or creative
ideas.