Revising/Editing Checklist
A header with the student's last name and page number appears on every page of the paper including the works-cited page.
A heading in MLA format, including the date in day/month/year format, appears on the left side of the first page.
A title with the topic, a colon, and main point is centered on the first page. (Periods do NOT end titles!)
Each and every line is two and only two line spaces apart. No extra line spaces are used. Everything is double-spaced.
Three or more sources appear in matching parenthetical citations and works-cited entries.
Correct page numbers, where available, are in parenthetical citation.
Every idea, whether directly quoted or paraphrased, has a parenthetical citation.
Book tiles are italicized; titles of short works are in quotation marks.
Present tense is used to discuss a literary work.
Discussion of the literary work appears in sequence.
Short quotes are introduced with an explanatory phrase, a comma, and beginning quotation marks.
Long quotes are introduced with an explanatory sentence, a colon, no quotation marks, and are entirely indented.
Words inserted by the research paper writer into quotes are put in brackets: [ ].
Words left out of quotes are shown by the insertion of ellipsis points: ... (Three periods are used unless the quoted sentence is complete; if so, four periods are used.
No quotation marks are used for paraphrases.
Proper spelling, grammar, and punctuation are used throughout the paper.
No contractions are used, except in directly quoted work by other authors.
Numbers under one hundred are spelled out.
Only third person pronouns (he, she, it, and they) are used, unless directly quoted from a source.
Paragraphs use transitions, have related topic and concluding sentences, and details support the topic sentence.
The paper's thesis is logically and effectively proven.
The paper is original and not plagiarized. (Any help provided by the teacher or peer tutors is excepted from this rule.)