examine the marked paper that you received back and look at the feedback. What are the main comments/critiques? What are the areas that would have to be fixed? Grammatical/usage issues are easy fixes, but other more endemic issues with argument or analysis will require some rethinking and rewriting.

From there, examine the paper as it is. How can you improve upon its features to meet the rubric below? How can you improve/sharpen the thesis? Where does the thesis apply in the body paragraphs and where do you have to re-draw those connections? How can you make an unclear analysis clearer? Are there any aspects that need expansion/modification? Since this is at least a second draft at this point, try to identify the problems you had before and fix them from there.

Also be sure to give the paper a pass for grammatical/usage issues, formatting problems, or revision tips errors, as well as basic MLA formatting.

The idea here is to take a paper you’ve written and to refine it using instructor commentary to make a better and brighter version that clearly moves between main and sub-arguments, that involves detail-based readings of the text at hand, and that corrects any sloppy errors.

Rubric:

Argument (40 points)

– Does the paper have the requisite structural aspects of a formal paper (i.e., an introduction, thesis, body paragraphs, and conclusion)? (10 pts)

– Does the paper’s thesis offer a clear articulation of the central argument? (10 pts)

– Do the paper’s paragraphs offer clear contributions to the thesis/larger argument? (10 pts)

– Is the paper’s argument unified (do all paragraphs/sections argue toward a common central idea)? (10 pts)

Analysis (40 points)

– Does the paper use evidence from the text to support its central claims? (10 pts)

– Are details from the text analyzed/interpreted? (10 pts)

– Do those interpretations make sense? (20 pts)

Style (20 points)

– Does the author’s prose style clearly deliver central ideas/points (10 pts)

– Does the author format the paper and any citations correctly? (10 pts)

– 5 points are marked off for each Revision Tips error

– 5 points are marked off for each sentence fragment