Revising “Checklist”

Improve your paper by doing the following:

1. Have a clearly stated thesis

2. Use transitions between points and ideas within points

3. Have clearly stated topic sentences that signal to the reader what you main points are

4. Us the “sandwich technique” for incorporating quotations and examples from the texts

5. Maintain consistency in your verb tenses

6. Have balanced points of approximately the same length

7. Have points that when looked at by themselves, could be mini-essays

8. Vary your sentence structure. Combine short sentences where ideas are closely related.

Editing “Hit List”

Avoid using any of the following in your writing to improve your style:

1. The pronoun “You”

2. Get, gets, got, gotten, getting. Don’t be lazy! Use more appropriate, specific verbs!

3. There is/are, it is, this is, these are

4. Passive verbs (John hits the ball. NOT The ball is hit by John.)

5. Repetition of the same word several times in nearby sentences

6. Wordiness. Can you say the same thing in fewer words?

7. Generalities. Can you use a more specific noun?

8. Pronouns that don’t match the nouns they replace (Should be EVERYONE has HIS/HER, etc.)