Dr. Busonik

 

Final Draft Checklist

 

Composition

q     Thesis form and the “So what?” test

q     Transitions

§         Logical, not chronological

§         Evolving rather than accretive

q     Introduction and Conclusion

§         Introduce the author and the work

§         Don’t repeat yourself in the conclusion (click here for alternatives)

q     Introduce quotations

q     The title

q     Works Cited

 

Proofreading (Four passes!)

 

1

q     Grammar (subject-verb agreement, run-on sentences, etc.)

2

q     Write about literature in the present tense.

3

q     Check apostrophes

 

q     Check spelling (manually):

 

There/they’re/their

 

It’s/its

 

Your/You’re

 

To/too/two

 

Then/than

 

Lose/loose

 

Definitely/defiantly

 

Every day/everyday

 

One word:

 

Anyone

Everyone

 

Someone

 

Without

4

q     MLA style (see my Web site)

 


 

What you can do in a conclusion:

 

  1. You can repeat your thesis—this is very weak and rather pointless in a short paper. It pretty much says, “I didn’t know what else to write and I want to get this over with.” If you feel the need to restate your thesis, rephrase it, change the emphasis, or make it more precise, incisive, or emphatic.
  2. You can speculate about the significance of what you have just argued—why is it important?
  3. You can discuss the implications of the case you have just made. If what you say is true, what other things are necessarily true? What is the significance of the point you made for our understanding of the topic? Of ourselves?
  4. You can bring up a final example, from the text or even from real life—an example that requires much less analysis. Since your case has been made, the reader can fill in some of the gaps.  This requires sensitivity in order to avoid appearing sloppy.
  5. You can acknowledge the limitations of the case you have just made. Nothing is absolutely true—or it’s not worth writing about—and therefore it is sometimes rhetorically astute to admit that your argument is valid up to a point. You should find a way to communicate that this limitation does not invalidate your argument.
  6. You can speculate about a new, related question or issue that, in light of the argument you have just made, the reader can easily answer for herself or can speculate about on her own. You must take extreme care with this one. If your new question is too provocative, it will leave the reader wondering why you didn’t make it the point of your essay to begin with; if it is entirely unrelated to the argument you have just made, it will seem irrelevant and incongruous.