Tips for proofreading and catching major errors:

  • Review the major error handout to make sure you understand the most significant problems you're looking for.  Also, take a look at the editing section on pp59-64 in Bedford. 

  • Read the essay out loud with a pencil in your hand and mark awkward sections.

  • Read the draft backwards at both the word level (to catch spelling errors) and the sentence level (to catch grammatical errors).

  • Read the draft through several times with at least an hour in between readings.

  • If you’re using a word processor, make sure to proofread with a hard copy—you won’t be hypnotized by the flashing pixels this way.

  • If you’re using a word processor, use the spell-checker, but remember that it won’t catch misspellings like from/form, two/too/to, then/than, of/have.

  • Lightly mark sentences that you’re unsure of, and ask me about them in class next time.

Students who don't pass this essay generally haven’t spent enough time proofreading

 

See Portfolio/Format Guidelines on the main assignments page for guidance on what to include in your portfolio and how to format your essay.  Several of you are continuing to lose points because you do not include writing goals, self-evaluation, and/or unit evaluation.  Remember to include a complete annotated bibliography with your pre-writing/invention; recall this is different than the works cited which will be the last page of your essay and should only include the works you actually cite in the essay (without annotations).  I also encourage you to review the model research paper in section 58B of The Bedford Handbook to see what the essay should look like. 

COMMON PROBLEMS:  The most common problem with this essay is that students don't always maintain their own voices and instead just put together a series of points that they have taken from other essays.  YOU SHOULD DRIVE THE ARGUMENT AND USE THE SECONDARY SOURCES AS A CHORUS TO BACK UP YOUR OWN VIEWS.  Also, remember that it is a good idea to use people who disagree with you to set up counterarguments--you have real opposition here that you can refute instead of imaginary opposition as in the "Babylon Revisited" paper.  The other problem that comes up is that students don't correctly document their sources--as I've mentioned several times, see chapter 55 in Bedford for help on this issue.  Another problem that sometimes comes up is faulty tone--make sure to consider your audience and don't use language that alienates them or puts them on the defensive.

FATAL FLAWS: If you have a fatal flaw in your paper, you will automatically fail the assignment.  The fatal flaws are: A) neglecting to include a works cited page, and B) neglecting to include sufficient evidence from the research packet.

I strongly encourage you to use my office hours, the writing center, and The Bedford Handbook to help you solve the problems as you revise your essay.