WHAT TO TURN IN…
Final draft which includes:
ü Proper heading on 1st page (upper left; your name, period, my name, date)
ü Underlined Original title (same size/style font as paper; should reflect something of thesis)
ü Footnotes (follow proper format for various sources)
ü Page numbers (number pages including the 1st page @ bottom center)
ü Bibliography (last page, titled at top center, alphabetized by 1st letter of 1st name/word, 2nd & subsequent lines indented, single-spaced within citation, double-space between, just the citation itself – none of the commentary that you had to put in Annotated Bibliography., follow proper format for sources. Do you have eight (8) sources?
ü Remember just Times New Roman 12-pt. font, w/ 1” margins, double-spaced; no double-spacing between paragraphs.
GENERAL COMMENTS ON ROUGH DRAFTS
Ø Most common general problems
(1) Summarizing information on topic, instead of carefully selecting EVIDENCE to support thesis. Balance recitation of facts with analysis.
(2) No thesis, unclear thesis, or thesis too general or hard to prove
(3) Plagiarism or insufficient footnoting
(4) Quotes – use selectively as evidence; identify speaker and cite source.
(5) Contractions (don’t, won’t…) – DO NOT USE THEM! Write it all the way out
(6) Abbreviations & Acronyms – write out fully the first time, then use short form afterwards
(7) Think/feel – how do you know? Cite evidence and/or source or qualify language. I think and I feel are not the third person so should not be used
CONTENT AND ORGANIZATION
1. Does your paper adequately support or prove the thesis statement?
2. Does your paper have a clear introduction, body, and conclusion?
3. Does every idea follow logically from the one that precedes it?
4. Have you used transitions throughout to show the connections between ideas?
Introduction
5. Will the introduction capture your reader’s attention?
6. Does the introduction present your thesis statement clearly?
Body
7. Does the body of your paper present evidence from a wide variety of sources?
8. Is information from your sources presented in a combination of summary, paraphrase, and quotation?
9. Have you filled any gaps in your argument that should by doing additional research? Are all your points adequately supported?
10. Has all unnecessary or irrelevant material been deleted from the body of your paper?
11. Have you avoided unsubstantiated statements of opinion throughout?
Conclusion
12. Did your restate your thesis in the conclusion of your paper?
13. Does your conclusion summarize the main points that you have presented in support of the thesis?
14. Does your conclusion give your readers a satisfactory sense of completion? (Are all loose ends tied up? Have all the parts of the thesis been supported? Have all of the readers’ most likely questions been answered about the topic being addressed?)
STYLE
15. Have you achieved variety by using many kinds of sentences – short and long sentences; simple, compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences; declarative, exclamatory, and interrogative sentences; sentences beginning w/ different parts of speech?
16. Have you avoided wordiness? Have you deleted unnecessary words, phrases, and clauses?
17. Have you used clear, concrete examples? Have you defined key terms?
18. Have you avoided colloquial language, slang, jargon, and dialect? Have you avoided contractions, personal references, and first-person pronouns?
19. Are the sentences in the paper graceful and not awkward?
DOCUMENTATION
20. Have you avoided plagiarism by completely documenting all materials taken from sources? Does every summary, paraphrase, or quotation have a corresponding source number?
21. Is each of your direct quotations set off by quotation marks or by indention? Is each quotation accurate? Does it reflect precisely what was in the source from which it was taken?
22. Is there a complete bibliography in proper Chicago Citation form in the final version of your manuscript