English 28 – Checklist Name:________________________

Identify essay (type): _Persuasion/Argumentative Essay_

Organization (Check if true):

__ Does the essay briefly summarize the topic, article, story or issue in the introduction?

__ Does the essay have a thesis?

__ Does the essay have body paragraph(s) that support the thesis?

__ Does the essay have body paragraph(s) that criticize the thesis? (only for persuasion essays)

__ Does the essay have body paragraph(s) that counter-argue the criticism of the thesis? (only for
persuasion essays)

__ Does the essay have a conclusion that doesn’t just repeat the thesis but expands on its argument?

Content (Check if true):

__ Does the essay accurately summarize the topic, article, story or issue?

__ Is the thesis/argument original, not plagiarized nor “obvious”?

__ Is the support or argument written in clearly detailed sentences? No vagueness?

__ Are there no redundancies in the argument? Is it stated once, then supported?

__ Are there effective transitions to cohesively link the arguments to the thesis?

__ Does the essay use enough quotes to support its thesis and arguments throughout?

__ Does the essay cite the quotes correctly in MLA format?

Grammar (Check if true):

 __ No run-ons?

__ No fragments?

__ No misspellings?

__ No punctuation
errors?

__ No pronoun
inconsistency?

__ No verb tense
inconsistency?

__ No subject-verb
errors?

__ No missing
articles (a, an, the)?

__ No
dangling/misplaced
modifiers?

__ No clichés? Nor
informal address
(use of “you”)?

__ No unnecessary
phrases (I think, I
believe, in my
opinion, to me)?

__ No awkward
phrasing?

Additional comments on the back