Questions for Self Review. Check off the boxes as you answer the questions.
1. Do I do something in the first five lines of my introduction to catch the reader's attention? (interesting facts, eye-catching statistics, true anecdotes, startling quotations, etc. £
2. When quoting articles with authors ("authored articles"), the author's last name and page number in parentheses should follow the quotation. For example: (Jones 45). Have I done this? (Note: if there is no page number, do not "invent" one.) £
3. When directly quoting authored articles in the text of your essay, use a signal phrase (such as, According to Jones, " . . .") to introduce the quotation. Have I done this? £
4. The article title should not (usually) appear in the signal phrase. Have I avoided doing this? £
5. When incorporating authorless articles into your essay, which you should have probably already paraphrased, follow up the paraphrase with the article title in parentheses (e.g., "Legalizing Drug Abuse"). Have I done this? £
6. Each author or source cited in the body of the essay should appear on the Works Cited page. Do they? £
7. Each work listed on the Works Cited page should appear cited somewhere in the essay itself. Do they? £
8. The entries on the Works Cited page should be double spaced. Additionally, the second and third lines of each entry should be indented. Are they? £
9. Each entry on the Works Cited page should contain all the necessary information MLA style requires: author's name, article title, source, date of publication, date of access, url, etc. Does each entry contain all the information required? £
10. In particular with Works Cited entries, when citing from Academic Search Premier, the journal name should be listed (not just "Academic Search Premier"). With Lexis Nexis, in addition to listing the newspaper name and page number, you should be careful not to list 5 line temporary link, but rather just the root link (similar to Academic Search Premier). Have you done this? £
11. Do I have a header on each page that contains my last name and page number? Insert this header by going to View>Header. Type your last name, space once, and choose the number sign on the pop-up toolbar. £
12. Do each of my paragraphs have a clear, singular focus to them? £
13. Do each of my paragraphs begin with topic sentences that describe the main point of the paragraph? £
14. Do I have any run-on sentences in my essay? A run-on sentence is a sentence that contains two clauses improperly joined. Usually students join them with commas, but they really need to be joined with a semi-colon, or broken with a period. £
15. In my conclusion, do I offer a memorable thought, such as a clever ending idea, twist, brief stunning quotation, etc? You might also end by answering a general question, such as, Why is the issue of combating illegal drugs important? Or, Why is it essential to legalize drugs now? Sometimes answering a general question works well here. £
16. Have I proofread my sentences about forty million times? £
17. Plagiarism. Your work must be your own. You cannot have someone edit the language of your paper to bring it up to a level of sophistication not representative of your own ability. If the style of your last draft is significantly different from the style on all your previous drafts, I will give you an F for plagiarism. This does not mean that you should not try your best to proofread and polish your sentences to perfection. It means that you must make sure your edits are truly your own, not someone else's. Is the work I am submitting truly my own?
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