Checklist for Revising your Essay
Content questions:
The first step of revision
- Do you have a specific thesis?
- Does your thesis match your paper?
- Do you have topic sentences for each paragraph that relate to the thesis?
- Are you providing examples and analyzing them in each paragraph?
- Does your paper flow from paragraph to paragraph or do you need transition
sentences?
- Are there any points in your paper where you have been vague?
- Have you wandered off your point?
- Do you use an appropriate tone (i.e. avoid slang, jargon, euphemisms, and
clichés)?
- Do you have an introduction?
- Do you have a conclusion?
Editing Questions:
After checking your content
- Do your subjects and verbs agree?
- Are you using verb tense in a consistent way? Do you talk about
articles in the present tense?
- Have you used active voice?
- Have you punctuated correctly? Appropriate comma usage? No fragments?
- Do you use the possessive when necessary?
Keep an eye out for words that sound the same but are spelled differently - your
computer's spell check will not catch them - words such as: they’re/there/their,
affect/effect, through/thru, hear/here, etc.
- Do you have any ambiguous or unclear antecedents?
- Have you cited sources in proper form for any quotations you used or
paraprhasing you did?
- Do you have an appropriately formatted Works Cited page?
Proofing questions:
Just before you hand in your paper
- Read your paper aloud. It should help you catch awkward sentences.
- Spell check.
- Do you have any typos?
- Do you have a title?
Back to "Preparing a Portfolio"
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