This document provides guidelines for revising and editing a document, including following a structure with an introduction, thesis statement, three body paragraphs with evidence, and conclusion. It recommends developing a clear thesis statement that asserts the main idea and three sub-topics. The document also offers tips for content, such as capturing the reader's attention, ensuring paragraphs have sufficient evidence, and answering "so what?" in the conclusion. Additional guidelines include following MLA format, reading aloud to check flow and understanding, and improving language, sentence structure, and mechanics.
2. STRUCTURE
• Introduction
• Thesis Statement (last sentence of Intro)
• Assertion
• 3 sub-topics
• 3 Body Paragraphs - TEST
• Topic sentences contain sub-topic keywords & connect back to thesis
• Summary statements contain keywords & connect back to thesis
• Conclusion
• Rephrase thesis statement (first sentence of Conclusion)
3. THESIS STATEMENT
• Assertion
• Main idea/ topic
• What is your message about your topic?
• Avoid be verbs. What do you want to say other than that they exist?
• 3 sub-topics
• 3 keywords or key phrases
• How do these relate to your assertion?
• Ideally, these are in the same order as body paragraphs.
4. CONTENT
• Introduction
• Capture reader’s attention/ give background info
• Ease reader into thesis
• Body Paragraphs
• Minimum 8 sentences each
• Minimum 3 substantial pieces of Evidence
• Are three body paragraphs balanced in quantity of evidence? (Check
visual space)
• Does each sentence support your topic sentence and thesis?
• Conclusion
• Answer the “So what?”
• Broad, global application of message
5. BASIC REQUIREMENTS
• Follow MLA Format
• Heading
• Last name & page numbers
• Correct spacing
• In-text citations & Works Cited
• No Contractions!
• No 2nd person “you”
• No 1st person “ I”
• No “I think,” “I believe,” “In my opinion”
• No “In summary,” “In conclusion”
• No abbreviations. If necessary, be sure to introduce properly.
6. READ ALOUD
• Does it make sense to you?
• Does it make sense to someone else?
• Have someone else summarize for you to check understanding.
• Is your argument logically sound?
• Does it flow?
7. LANGUAGE ENRICHMENT
• Look for vague, ineffective words. Replace them with specific, descriptive
words.
• Eliminate or reduce these:
• be verbs (am, is, are, was, were, be, being, been)
• get, go, have, do
• things & stuff
• people, -one, -body, -where
• Change passive verbs to active verbs.
• Check lists for parallelism.
8. SENTENCE STRUCTURE
• Isolate each sentence (Read aloud backwards)
• Is it a sentence?
• Is it a fragment? Run-on? Comma splice? Fused sentence?
• Is it a compound sentence? Is it a complex sentence?
• What is the subject? What is the verb?
• Do the subject and verb agree?
9. MECHANICS
• Capitalization
• End punctuation
• Spelling
• Word choice
• Pronoun-antecedent agreement!!!
• Commas
