 Can you point to a thesis statement in the essay? Is it clearly stated? Does the text carry out the purpose of the thesis statement? If not, does the body of the paper need some paring down or elaboration or does the thesis statement need to be refined to reflect an improved text? | |
| Are the ideas in the essay clearly ordered? If the reader had to, could he or she devise an outline that would reveal the order of development in your argument? | |
| Are there any serious fallacies in the logic of your argument? | |
| Are paragraphs adequately developed and is there a clear transition from one idea to the next? | |
| Is the Introduction clear and adequately developed? Does the Conclusion do what you want it to? | |
| Is the language and Tone consistent and appropriate for the audience you want to reach and the subject you're treating? On one hand, have you avoided slang and being overly casual; on the other hand, have you avoided sounding pretentious and stuffy? | |
| Personal Grammatical Issues: Circle those elements below that might be something you need to pay special attention to in your own writing. | |
 Fragments Run-ons Comma Usage Other Punctuation Marks Articles Plurals and Possessives PronounsPronoun/Antecedent Agreement Modifier Misplacement |
Subject/Verb Agreement Tense Sequence Capitalization Italics and Underlining Using Numbers Wordiness Parallelism Confusion Spelling |