Proofreading Checklist for Process Essays
  The Puritan Mind

Proofreading Checklist

Ideas and organization

☐ Somewhere in the first paragraph, I state my thesis in a simple, direct sentence. (Unity)

☐ My thesis expresses an opinion rather than summarizes the story or states something that is simply factually true. (Unity)

☐ The body of my essay consists of three or four reasons that “prove” my these or examples that support it. Quotations are introduced correctly and then discussed, to make it clear what the reader is supposed to notice. (Development)

☐ Transitions are used between paragraphs. (Coherence)

☐ Every paragraph has a topic sentence which states the main idea of that paragraph. Everything in the paragraph relates to that topic sentence. (Unity and Coherence)

☐ The points are organized in a way that a reader can easily follow the argument. (Coherence)

Style

☐ Every sentence is clear and graceful.

☐ Most sentences have active verbs rather than “being” verbs, such as “is,” “was,” “were,” “are,” etc.

☐ My nouns are specific rather than vague or abstract. (“tree” is vague; “willow” is specific֓trouble” is abstract; the death of her daughter is specific)

Conventions and Usage

☐ Every word is spelled correctly

☐ Every sentence is complete (no fragments).

☐ I have no fused sentence or comma splices. I’ve changed run-on sentences with too many jumbled together ideas into simpler sentences.

☐ Possessive nouns have apostrophes. Conjunctions have apostrophes.

☐ Proper nouns are capitalized, and every sentence begins with a capital.