Writing a Paper for Me

☑ Is my thesis statement or research question concise and clear? To ensure that it covers everything, always write it last -- after even your conclusion. Unless your mind is very linear, writing is a process of exploration and discovery, and you may well have written a very different paper than the one you started out to write.

☑ Did I follow my outline or do I need to adjust it or the resultant paper a bit? Did I miss anything? Get sidetracked into something better put in an appendix?

☑ Are my arguments presented in a logical sequence? If not, cut and paste a bit.

☑ Are all sources properly cited to ensure that I am not plagiarizing? Remember that what is important is where the idea came from, not whether it is a direct quote or a paraphrase. Cite ALL the ideas you get from somewhere else, and in general, that's everything in your paper except your research question and conclusion.

☑ Have I proved my thesis with strong supporting arguments?

☑ Have I made my intentions and points clear in the essay?

Reread your paper for grammatical errors.

☑ Use a dictionary or a thesaurus as needed.

☑ Do a spell check.
☑ Correct all errors that you can spot and improve the overall quality of the paper to the best of your ability.

☑ Get someone else to read it over. Sometimes a second pair of eyes can see mistakes that you missed. Do you have a tendency to see what you expect to see or read what you think you mean. Professional proofreaders have found that the former can be corrected by reading backwards, or even upside down and backwards.

☑ Sleep on it: give the paper another look the next day. You'll notice logical problems that made perfect sense at the time of composition

2002; Last revised July 14, 2008
Dr. Bonnie Duncan
bduncan@millersville.edu
1-717-871-2080
English Department
Millersville University
Millersville, PA 17551

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