Introduction

1. Find and underline your thesis. Is it focused on your specific assertion? Is it clearly stated? Is it too ambiguous or general? Have you let your reader know exactly what you hope to demonstrate?

2. Are the techniques used in the introduction appropriate to the topic and style of the essay? How do you establish yourself as a credible author worthy of trust? Is your introduction interesting without being melodramatic? Is it relevant without being abrupt or boring?

Body Paragraphs

1. If this paragraph follows another body paragraph, have you provided a smooth transition? Can your reader see clearly why this particular paragraph follows that particular paragraph, or do the paragraphs seem to flow randomly?

2. Does every single paragraph have a topic sentence? Is that topic sentence clearly relevant to your paper topic?

3. Do you discuss your topic sentence in the following sentence or sentences?

4. Have you provided major support (strong examples and/or evidence—from literature and research—illustrating topic sentence)?

5. Have you introduced quotations gracefully, establishing context if necessary?

6. Have you written developmental sentences to discuss, explain, or analyze the support and how it illustrates the topic sentence? Have you clearly demonstrated how this evidence is significant to your paragraph topic?

7. Have you repeated steps 4, 5, & 6 for each piece of evidence in the paragraph?

8. Have you ended your paragraph with some sort of final analysis? Do you wrap up your paragraph so that your reader doesn't lose sight of the fact that this whole paragraph serves the larger purpose of your thesis?

Quotations

1. Are quotations clearly and smoothly integrated into the paragraph? Do you introduce the quotations and explain their significance in relation to your topic sentence and thesis? Are there any "floating quotations" that do not contain any of your own words to integrate them into your paragraph?

2. Are quotations too long? Are they too frequent?. Have the quotations served your essay, or have you let them obscure your own thinking?.

3. Do quotations appropriately support the topic sentence and major points, or do they emanate from the Twilight Zone, seeming unrelated to anything in your paragraph?

4. Are all quotations (and paraphrases) clearly documented?

Conclusion

1. Does the conclusion tie the essay together? Does it actually make conclusions or simply restate ideas discussed earlier in the essay?

2. Does the conclusion refer to the introduction in a way that gives the essay unity?

3. Does the conclusion merely regurgitate the introduction? Does it merely repeat the ideas of your paper (a Cliff's Notes conclusion)?

4. Have you given your reader a satisfying sense that you have ended your argument, not just quit it?
 

—adapted from materials by Dr. Nancy Chick