Guidelines for Evaluating Writing about
Literature
The following questions may help you edit
your paper and prepare a better assignment:
- Is the title of my paper a phrase and
does it relate to the thesis of the paper? Does my title include
the title of the work under discussion? Do I capitalize all the
important words in my title?
- Does my introduction begin directly by
placing the literary work within the context of the specific issues
that my paper will raise and do I define those issues? Is it clear
from my introduction where my paper is headed?
- Does my introduction end with a focused
thesis statement that is both restrictive and precise?
- Do my paragraphs have clear topic sentences
or transitional generalizations that relate directly to the thesis?
Do I follow a discernible pattern of development or organization?
Is the organization or order of my paragraphs clear? Do I use
any recognizable technique of development?
- Does my paper contain logical paragraphing,
a logical sequence of paragraphs, and are the paragraphs well
developed and of adequate length? Do the sentences within my paragraphs
also follow a logical sequence?
- Do I have transitions between paragraphs
and ideas?
- Do I analyze and argue or do I merely
summarize the plot or retell the action?
- Do I incorporate my evidence successfully
into my discussion, explain it and integrate it properly, or do
I merely dump lengthy quotations into my paper under the assumption
that they will be self-explanatory?
- Do I pile on quotations on top of quotations
instead of writing my own judicious discussion and analysis?
- Are my in-text quotations too long? Should
they be blocked?
- Do I quote precisely from the text? Do
I use quotations that make sense in the context of my own sentences
and are my quotations introduced properly or coherently attached
to my own sentences?
- Do I quote properly material already
within quotation marks in the text?
- Do I punctuate my in-text quotations properly,
with and without parenthetical documentation? Do I punctuate my
blocked quotations properly in light of parenthetical documentation?
- Do I consistently use the present tense
in discussing the text?
- Does my discussion have a proper voice
or point of view? Is the language of my paper admissible, the
diction appropriate?
- Does my paper analyze the text objectively
or do I inject all sorts of personal prejudices and beliefs into
my paper and moralize, preach, or attack the author or the characters?
- If the assignment called for writing
a comparison and contrast paper have I mistakenly discussed the
two works separately and then tried to do some comparing and contrasting
in the conclusion only? Or does my paper maintain a proper dialogue
or interplay between the two texts that I am analyzing?
- Have I eliminated all grammatical or
sentence sense errors that may cloud or entirely impede the reader's
comprehension?
- Does my paper still contain verb tense
errors, subject-verb agreement errors, fragments, run-ons, pronoun
reference problems, spelling errors, and errors in the use of
the apostrophe?
- Finally, does my discussion end with
a logical conclusion that does not merely repeat the thesis or
the introduction? Have I been careful not to introduce any new
ideas or points not covered by the paper? Do I leave my reader
with something to think about?
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