Essay Checklist and Writing Examples

The following is a checklist of questions you should review before turning in an essay:

• Do I have an arguable thesis?
• Is my essay free from grammatical and spelling errors? 
• Do I have the details right, including correct page references, correct spelling of the author and character's names, an accurate sense of the scenes I describe?
• Are all of the quotations I used well integrated into my own sentences? Have I provided a context for each quotation and an explanation of its significant features as they relate to my overall argument?
• Do I have topic sentences that clearly state my argumentative intent for the paragraph and connect back to my overall thesis?
• Does every paragraph progress my overall argument?
• Is my thesis clearly identifiable in the introduction?
• Does the introduction introduce the author and name of the essay the paper analyzes?
• Have I removed any overly general statements or language? (Statement like "He uses a specific tone," are oddly non-specific)
• Have I created a title unique to the subject matter of my essay?
• Are my margins and font size correct, along with other MLA formatting features?
• Have I referred to the author by their last name throughout my paper?
• Are my conclusions based on an textual evidence from within the essay/book rather than personal experience or anecdotes?

Introduction Examples

Example 1:

In Dracula, feminism is a central theme that is constantly contradicted throughout the entire novel. Depending on the situation, male characters such as Jonathan Harker, Van Helsing, and Dr. Seward feign promotion of feminism in times of tranquility, but when dangers comes in close proximity, true antifeminist ideals disguised as gallantry are exposed. Stoker cleverly creates the notion of an independent woman, only to contradict it by making the women very fragile and in need of protection and saving from men. This portrayal is witnessed in many interactions involving Mina with the Van Helsing’s group, and with Lucy. 

Example 2:

Eudora Welty’s psychological gothic short story “Clytie” is about a pitiable woman named Clytie Farr and her unraveling family. As her older sister Octavia fights to either keep the once-prosperous family together or be personally in charge of their destruction (it’s almost impossible to tell which), Clytie is desperately seeking her own meaning by scouring the town for a familiar face she half-remembers. In the end she loses hope of ever finding a satisfying conclusion to her search, and in a startling final scene Clytie submerges her head in a rain barrel and dies. Her drastic action may at first seem random, or merely the outcome of frustration at the constant nagging by her older sister. However, a more thorough understanding of Welty’s use of faces as reoccurring symbols reveals that Clytie’s sudden death is actually the result of her stunted emotional development and abandonment at the hands of her dysfunctional family.   

• What is the thesis statement?
• What devices can we expect the author to talk about in the rest of the essay?
• What does the author of this essay identify as the central conflict of the short story he/she is writing about?
• What is the structure of the introduction? How does the author build to the thesis statement?
• What could be improved?

Body Paragraph Examples

Example 1:

Disregarding all the other men in the group, Jonathan Harker, her husband, treats her in a deprecating manner as well. Starting from his trepidation in showing her his journal, to the boat headed for Varna, he always felt as if she could not handle what was about to happen. Despite her helpfulness to each person, her value in the group never increased much because of her gender. Jonathan even says on the boat that “Mina is sleeping now, calmly and sweetly like a little child. Her lips are curved and her face beams with happiness” (Stoker 484). His description of her includes the words little child, which leads one to conclude that he does not think of her as an equal. It is apparent that he cares for her greatly, but she is not given the same respect as any of the other men. In addition, by calling her a little child, one is able to easily see why everyone is able to tell her what to do. Mina is not the only character treated unfairly, Lucy is also deceived through the guise of duty.

Example 2: 

Clytie is not confined physically; there are no locked doors or barred windows. Instead, the method by which she is confined is through control of her will. It is her sister Octavia who has created the psychological cage for Clytie, as evidenced by the scene in which Clytie prepares dinner for the entire family. Octavia refuses to step on to the ground floor of the house, where the kitchen is housed, and so forces Clytie to cook and bring the family’s meals to them upstairs (426). The image of Clytie cooking and carrying each family’s tray of food – each meal separately prepared, because no one eats the same thing (426) - is very reminiscent of Cinderella, except in this case the abuser isn’t an intruder in the family but rather a flesh-and-blood relative of the mistreated Clytie. Any time she defies her sister Octavia, she is immediately shut down and reduced to a state of confused tears. A prominent example of this is when Clytie wants to feed their paralyzed, stroke-victim father the soup that she prepared for him (427). Octavia at once refuses her and chooses to feed him herself (427). It is more than likely that she does this simply to assert her control – nowhere else in the story is she shown as being a motherly or care-taking type of character at all. We see that this pattern of getting her way must be historical, because Clytie sees no point in fighting outright and relinquishes the bowl of soup even while she quietly disagrees with Octavia’s decision (427). However, we learn that throughout all of this and despite her situation, Clytie is not numb. After a moment, she cries and curses at Octavia, yet still brings her sister her meal when prompted (427,428). She is miserable, and free to leave, as she proves by defying Octavia and wandering the town every day. Yet it is this small act of pitiful defiance that further emphasizes her psychological confinement because, as Octavia smugly points out, Clytie always returns (425). 

• How does the topic sentence set up the paragraph? From the topic sentence, what can we expect the paragraph to be about?
• How many images does this paragraph attempt to address?
• How does the author use textual evidence in this paragraph? What overall idea does the evidence support?
• How is the author of this essay extending the argument identified in the introduction? What is the author claiming is unique about his/her argument?
• From the last sentence in this paragraph, where can we expect the argument will proceed? 
• What could be improved? 

Conclusion Example

The search for the “mysterious” face is Welty’s strongest use of symbolism, a literary device that only reaches its conclusion at the same time that poor Clytie meets hers. For both the reader and Clytie, faces are symbolic of what it means to be human, to need, to want, yet throughout the story Clytie is too emotionally hindered by her servitude and submissiveness to her maddening family to ever fully acknowledge this needing and wanting in herself. When she finally does perceive the depths of her unmet desires, the feeling overwhelms her immature mind. In the end, her inability to deal with her disappointment meets the precedent set by her family members’ deaths and that is what leads to Welty’s character’s premature death. 

• This conclusion is more than a reiteration of the introduction. What information does the conclusion include that the introduction did not?
• What method does this author use to summarize their argument?