Self Revision Checklist

1. MLA format - Heading on the left, centered title, paginated

Student
Teacher
Class
Date

Title

2. Intro paragraph - Build context/background

Start big - then narrow your focus - then thesis statement
Civil rights movement
Athlete activists
Ali and Robinson
Thesis

3. Thesis statement should answer your research question - do not end your intro paragraph by
asking your research question but by answering it.

Question:​ How has the three-point shot changed the way the game of basketball has played
Thesis: ​The three-point shot radically altered the way the game of basketball is played by…

4. Beware of vague facts and figures

Weak: ​Hundreds of students athletes receive full ride scholarships each year.
Stronger: ​According to the NCAA, over 5,000 scholarships are awarded each year to student
athletes.

5. Make sure to cite facts, statistics and quotes - Your citation can occur within the sentence or
be placed in parentheses at the end of the sentence. See the Purdue Owl website for MLA
in-text citations for more specific information. ​https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/2/

Italicize titles of books, plays, films, or an entire website

Use quotation marks for shorter works like articles, essays, poems

6. Keep yourself out of the essay

Weak: ​I think that a bike ride can be therapeutic
Stronger:​ A study conducted by New Have Medical Institute found that riding a bike can
significantly lower stress levels in people across all age groups.

7. Conclusion paragraph should contain the following:

Restate your thesis in a new way
Summarize your main points (beware of repetition)
Strong concluding sentence that explains why your topic matters or revisits your research
question with new insight

8. Works Cited page should contain:

It’s own page
Centered title
Alphabetized
Evenly double spaced
Hanging indent
At least five sources

9. Clean up punctuation/grammatical errors - Pretend your whole paper is a grammar warm-up.

Edit sentence by sentence for mistakes and clarity. Watch out for the following:
Comma splices - two or more sentences combined with only a comma
Run ons - two or more sentences combined with out commas
Fragments - incomplete sentences
Capitalization errors
Correct use of their(possessive, there (place), they’re (contraction of they are)
Correct use of a/an - Use an if the following noun starts with a vowel - a car, an alligator
Stay consistent with verb tense
Spelling errors - Use spell check, but remember that it does not catch everything.