1. Does your essay attempt to struggle with significant concepts in various and complex ways or do you state what is pretty much common knowledge?
2. Does your thesis make a clear statement about the purpose and direction of your paper?
3. Does your paper clearly develop the idea, and is it clear to your reader (audience)? How does each paragraph connect to your thesis?
4. Do you explain throughly how you arrive at your propositions or do you just state them?
5. Do you substantiate your ideas either through direct and/or indirect references to the text?
6. Do you trace your ideas throughtout the novel or reference only one or two parts?
7. Do you explain how you want your reader to interpret the information or do you assume the quotations are self-explanatory?
8. Are individual paragraphs unified, coherent, and fully developed?
9. Is it clear how your paragraphs build on one another or are they disconnected?
10. Can you consciously justify your organization? Could you reorganize any parts more effectively?
11. Is your argument persuasive? Do you consider other ways in which your reader might interpret ideas or do you assume that your reader immediately perceives your ideas as you present them?
12. Do the most important points get suffiecient emphasis? Do lessor points get too much emphasis?
13. Can you vary the lengths and types of sentences to avoid monotony and achieve special emphasis?
14. Are the words precise and distinctive (assertive) or do they tend to be vague, trite, or bland?
15. To what extent do errors in grammar, spelling or punctuation detract from the readibility and authority (ethos) of the paper (or the writer)?
*adapted from Donald Murray's "Guide for Evaluating Essays" and the UNH writing institute.