It is University policy that "evaluation of students' written work includes evaluation of the quality of the written language as well as of the basic subject material." (University Senate, 1975)
Proof-read your essay very carefully before submitting it, checking for spelling errors and for grammatical faults and stylistic crudities. Remember that your computer's spell-checker will pick up many, but not all, misspelled words. As for grammar and style, read your essay aloud (yes, aloud!) to yourself. With practice, you should become more critically aware of how your writing flows, and hearing it often helps you to spot flaws.
The following list includes some of the more common reference words and abbreviations found in scholarly writing. You should be able to recognize them, but you should generally write words out in full in your own essays. Note that many of the abbreviations are from Latin, a scholarly practice that dates back to the Middle Ages--but one that should probably be avoided, now that Latin is no longer a sine qua non (oops! a necessary part) of our basic education.
| b. | born | |
| Bc. | basso continuo (Italian) | "continuous bass" (musical term) |
| ca. or c. | circa | about (used with approximate dates, for example, c. 1750) |
| c.f. | cantus firmus | "fixed song" (musical term) |
| ch., chs. | chapter(s) | |
| col., cols. | column(s) | |
| comp. | compiled (by) | |
| d. | died | |
| diss. | dissertation | |
| ed., eds. | editor(s) or edited (by) | |
| e.g. | exempli gratia | for example (do not confuse with "i.e.") |
| et al. | et alia | and others (used in citing a source with more than three authors) |
| ex. exx. | example(s) | |
| f., ff. | and following (pages) | |
| fl. | floruit | he or she flourished (used for approximate "career dates" when birth and death dates are unknown) |
| fn. | footnote | |
| i.e. | id est | that is (do not confuse with "e.g.") |
| m., mm. | measure(s) (used when referring to passages of music) | |
| MS, MSS | manuscript(s) | |
| n.d. | no date given (in a book's imprint) | |
| n.p. | no place of publication given | |
| p., pp. | page(s) | |
| [sic] | thus, so (usually used to acknowledge a misspelled or misused word or faulty logic in a quotation) | |
| transcr. | transcribed (by) | |
| transp. | transposed (by) | |
| viz. | videlicat | that is, namely |
| vol., vols. | volume(s) |