• ✔ Have you read every primary work featured prominetly within a critics' argument?
• Is the marked Prospectus attached?
• ✔ Does the paper have an interesting title?
• ✔ Is your name, the date the paper is handed in, the course # and semester on the first page? (no separate title page required)
• ✔ Are the pages numbered? (w/ last name)
• Does a word count (excluding Works Cited) appear at paper's end? (3,000 min)
• ✔ Does the paper follow MLA citation style?
• ✔ Are book, play, and journal titles underlined or italicized?
• ✔ Are journal article titles placed in " "? (for works cited only...do not put article titles in body of paper)
• ✔ Are all quotes followed by a page number *within a single paragraph, if the same page number is quoted repeatedly, it only needs to be included in the last quote within the paragraph)?
• Has the verb to be been put in its place?
  • is, are, was, were
• have transitions been created between all paragraphs and especially between all elements of your argument?
• Has every typo, comma splice, run-on sentence been corrected?
• ✔ Has the thesis statement been underlined?

Other notes:

• Do all the work for your reader.
• What is an interesting title? crisp and fun..
• you have to EARN CLARITY
• incorporate YOUR ideas with critical readings
• do the thinking for your reader
• create relationships between your critics
• create lists!
  • smith says this
    • nelson also says this, but in a different way
• if a critic doesn't comment on your thesis, chuck them!
• don't describe too much about what a critic said
  • don't overwhelm the reader
  • what are the 3 most important things the critic says about my thesis?
• don't have to start off with the critic's name.
• Need more words?
  • go back to your sources
  • go back to a subpoint and break it into 2--make a distinction
  • you can always go further
• get your critics to "talk to each other"
• Assume your reader has read the poem, but not closely
• get very specific in the thesis
• don't say "one"--it's too formal
• take out obstacles (mistakes)
• SIGN POSTING
  • you have to make it easy and attractive to readers
  • every new paragraph is an opportunity for sign posting: a reminder of your thesis
  • use keywords from your thesis!
  • define terms? "modernism"?
  • provide definition for those who need it (possibility of endnote)
• pay attention to places that need definition (ie historical, personal background; terms)
• try to keep "to be" to 2 per page (or much less)
• Miller stated, "
  
  y..."
• 3+ lines of a block quote--no more than 5 lines--no quote marks
• you want to end your paper with a ...bang.
• draw ev erything together
  • do more work
• end it with something cool, title it something cool...
• be fun, mysterious, gimicky
• leave them hanging
• go back into the articles and look for a hook.