A Secondary School or College English teacher, after making a writing assignment, then must set about correcting them. An abbreviation such as "Sp." might indicate "correct the spelling" (by consulting, say, a dictionary); an abbreviation such as "Gr." might indicate "correct the grammar" (perhaps by prayer). But most of the correction problems were so complicated that a student needs to consult a manual to explain it -- sparing the English teacher from being Your Friendly Recording, at least some of the time. (This is one of the things that American mathematician, Norbert Wiener, meant by his book, The Human Use of Human Beings.I'll illustrate by a book I have handy, Harcourt Brace Handbook, by John C. Hodges and Mary E. Whitten.
Suppose the student misused a pronoun in a compound construction. Instead of writing a detailed explanation on the margin of the student's paper, or in an accompanying note, the teacher need simply write "5a" (in, say, red ink) above the offending usage. Reading this, the student finds, in the Table of Contents of this Handbook, that "5a" that this item appears on p. 59, where proper usage is discussed along with examples.
(Hamlet! Don't sneer at this. I'm hard-nosed about the proper use of language -- mathematical or otherwise. Language makes us human, and correct usage can lift you out of survival pay!)
Suppose the teacher wishes to show how to make her/his writing more emphatic. Reading "29e" at some point in the paper, the student finds instruction on p. 331 how to "Gain emphasis by repeating important words", with examples.
A Glossary of Grammatical Terms begins on p. 529.
Etsettery.
It occurred to me in 1961 that Math teacher also enjoy "Human Use", by having a similar Handbook. If the offense is in division, a coding can direct the student to pages discussing this operation, with examples. If the offense involves using an arithmetic mean for rate data, when a harmonic mean as "average", a coding can indicate the proper procedure. If the student doesn't know how to factor a 3rd degree algebraic equation, a coding can indicate the procedure. Etsettery.
In applying to the National Science Foundation for a grant to develop such a Handbook, I suggested that this was a "team" project, and asked only to help start it going and work with others to complete it.
But my request was ignored -- all three times I submitted it.
46 years later, such a Handbook does not exist.
I CHALLENGE you to INITIATE WHAT THE NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION AND GENERATIONS OF MATH TEACHERS HAVE FAILED TO DO!