Freshman English--Generic Checklist for Writing of Essays

The Writing Master (Benjamin Eakins),
 Thomas Eakins (1882)

Review your paper to make sure the following criteria have been met.  If not, indicate changes, so final copy is improved.

Content/Organization/Structure

1. Essay has five paragraphs.

2. Each paragraph has at least five sentences.

3. Opening paragraph contains a strong thesis. Underline the thesis.

4. Opening paragraph includes mention of three examples to be discussed.

5. Opening paragraph does not begin elaborating on examples.

6. Introductory paragraph is followed by three paragraphs for the body of the essay.

7. Each of the body paragraphs has a topic sentence mentioning the example(s) to be discussed in that paragraph.

8. Each of the three body paragraphs contains specific concrete details (elaboration) that explain how the example(s) relates to the thesis.

9. Essay does not get off the point and simply summarize.  Essay sticks to the thesis.

10. Essay has an excellent concluding paragraph.

11. Essay answers the prompt exactly.  Essay answers all aspects of the prompt.  I can tell exactly what the prompt is, simply by reading the essay.

12. Essay is not repetitive or redundant (does not repeat the same ideas).  Cut out anything that doesn't need to be included.

Grammar/Usage/Mechanics

1. Titles of stories match the Table of Contents and are within quotation marks.  Check spelling, capitalization, and exact wording.

2. Titles of characters are capitalized and spelled correctly.

3. Verb tenses are consistent throughout essay.  Use the "literary present tense" throughout your essay. The literary present is a convention used in discussions of literature.  For example, write "Poe's narrator believes that the old man is staring at him" instead of "Poe's narrator believed that the old man was staring at him."

4. Sentences do not start with "and," "also," "but," "because," "like," and "so," and "which."

5. Capital letters look like capital letters.  Lowercase letters look like lowercase letters.

6. Essay does not have statements such as "I think," "I believe," "In this essay I will discuss," and "In my opinion."

7. Titles of long works, such as books and plays, are underlined, not within quotation marks.

8. Essay does not sound like someone having a conversation or chat, but instead sounds formal and scholarly.

9. "Alot" is two words: "a lot."

10. Essay avoids slang such as "wanna" and "gonna."

11. Plural words do not have apostrophes. Apostrophes are used correctly.

12. "it's" means "it is."

13. Essay does not confuse similar sounding words such as "their," "there," and "they're."

14. Punctuation occurs inside quotation marks (except in the instance of a semicolon).

15. Essay does not have run-on sentences.

16. Essay does not have fragments.

17. Essay has correct spelling throughout.

18. Essay avoids words such as "unique."

19. Essay writes out words and does not use symbols for words.

20. "Every day" is two words when used as an adverb and one word when used as an adjective.

21. Essay does not confuse "affect" and "effect."
22. Essay avoids conversational tone, such as "Now, as you may already know."