Essay Writing CheckList

The development of a good essay depends on your essay writing check list. If you properly follow the required checklist than you will definitely gain good score in Essay writing.You can check essay check list of students. The Essay Writing checklist used for academic purpose (i.e.IELTS or ESL) or during admission in colleges.The online software's are available for this purpose. Read and follow the following Essay writing check list for better result.

•    Title of any essay is very important. Check your title. The title should be appropriate not generic or boring. It must entice the reader.

•    The lead sentence should be appropriate. Check whether it introduces the main idea and provide a firm foundation for the sentences that follow it.

•    Check your paragraphs it should be uniform. Whether all of the sentences in each paragraph relate to the topic sentence. It is important to use a variety of sentence lengths.

•    Elaborate on general ideas by providing details such as descriptions, examples, and explanations.
•    Check, identified and eliminated any cliches.

•    Check whether any sentences that need to be shifted to a more appropriate paragraph or eliminated entirely.

•    Check whether every sentence contain a subject and a predicate.

•    Check whether your word choices as appropriate and precise as they could be. Have you looked up any words about which you were uncertain?

•    Check whether your thoughts flow smoothly throughout the paper.

•    Conclusion is very important. Check whether your conclusion provides a final summary or judgment, or make a future prediction.

•    Proofreading is an essential step. So do proofread manually.

•  Word processor’s are very good to check your spelling and grammatical errors.  Run your word processor’s spellchecker to check your spelling and punctuation errors.

•    Read your paper aloud or give your paper to a friend or relative to read it aloud to check your stilted phrasing, sentence fragments, and run-on sentences.

•    Check whether all of the sentences in your essay relate to your main idea and topic.

I hope above mentioned checklist helps you to write effective essays which gain an excellent score.

Essay Scoring Criteria

Use the following scoring guide to score each of your essays. Better yet, have someone else read your essay and use the scoring guide to help you see how well you have done. Sample essays for the first six essay topics follow this scoring guide.

Essay Score “6”

A “6” essay is a highly effective response to the assignment; a few minor errors are allowed. It has the following additional characteristics:
•    Good organization and overall coherence.
•    Clear explanation and/or illustration of main ideas.
•    Variety of sentence syntax.
•    Facility in language usage.
•    General freedom from mechanical mistakes.
•    Errors in word usage and sentence structure.

Essay Score “5”

A “5” essay shows competence in responding to the assigned topic but may have minor errors. It has the following additional characteristics:

•    Competent organization and general coherence.
•    Fairly clear explanation and/or illustration of main ideas.
•    Some variety of sentence syntax.
•    Facility in language usage
•    General freedom from mechanical errors.
•    Errors in word usage and sentence structure.

Essay Score “4”

A “4” essay displays competence in response to the assignment. It has the following additional characteristics:
•    Adequate organization and development.
•    Explanation and illustration of some key ideas.
•    Adequate language usage.
•    Some mechanical but inconsistent errors and
•    Mistakes in usage or sentence structure.

Essay Score “3”

A “3” essay shows some competence but is plainly flawed. Additionally, it has the following characteristics:
•    Inadequate organization or incomplete development.
•    Inadequate explanation or illustration of main ideas.
•    A pattern of mechanical mistakes or errors in usage and sentence structure.

Essay Score “2”

A “2” essay shows limited competence and is severely flawed. Additionally, it has the following characteristics:
•    Poor organization and general lack of development.
•    Little or no supporting detail.
•    Serious mechanical errors and mistakes in usage, sentence structure, and word choice

Essay Score “2”

A “1” essay shows a fundamental lack of writing skill. Additionally, it has the following characteristics:
•    Practically nonexistent organization and general incoherence.
•    Severe and widespread writing errors.

Essay Score “0”

A “0” essay does not address the topic assigned.

Critical Reading strategies and Skills

Realistically speaking, standardized tests are an important gauge of a student’s academic Achievement and every student should strive to succeed on standardized tests such as the SAT, ACT, GRE, and school entrance exams. The best way to prepare for reading tests and for future reading challenges is to become a critical reader. The kind of active reader reaches to find a deeper meaning beyond the literal.

Active readers interpret a text by analyzing literary devices and by drawing conclusions based on facts and events presented in the text. A well-told fictional story is a joy to read, and active readers experience an even richer reading experience by exploring the meaning beyond the surface. Active readers analyze, scrutinize, and make judgments and connections regarding important elements such as plot, characterization, and the author’s use of setting and literary devices. Armed with the ability to form inferences and draw logical conclusions, the experienced critical reader has little to fear when faced with a standardized test or entrance exam.

Critical Reading Strategies

Here are strategies that will help you to become a more active and successful reader:
•    Start by surveying the book’s title, topic sentences, or photo captions for clues about the main idea.

•    Read and understand about the ongoing theme? Is there more than one theme? Is the theme stated in the title or in the body of the book? Is it implied? What is the author trying to achieve?

•    When you stumble upon a word that is unfamiliar to you, use the context of the   surrounding words to clue you in to its meaning. Read difficult paragraphs more than once to be certain that you have grasped the full meaning.

•    Analyzing dialogue is an important method of understanding a character’s personality and the manner in which he or she interacts with the other characters. Pay attention to what characters say to one another. Analyze the engagement in conflict of characters. Dialogue also reveals important clues about a character’s educational, regional, social, and economic background and his or her moral character.

•    Understand the author’s tone. Analyze the story either it is an optimistic or a pessimistic one. Does the author think that the world is a cruel, harsh place to live in, or does he or she have a positive worldview?

•    Every story contains conflict woven into the plot, because without conflict there isn’t usually much of a story. There can be more than one conflict going on, and the conflict can involve individuals, nature, and concepts (man versus nature, man versus man, man versus society). Read carefully and understand about the roots of the conflict. Analyze the consequences or effects of the conflict either conflict ever resolved or not. If so, how?

•    Setting details are important and should be analyzed. Historical, scientific, and technological events, climate, economic conditions, occupations, traditions, and religious and cultural customs are important setting details that impact a story and its characters. The racially charged Southern Depression-era setting in the southern Gothic novel to kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee is an excellent example of the connection between setting and plot development. The science fiction genre often introduces technology in settings that are vastly different from the present-day world.

•    When you are writing a response to a literary text, it is important that you incorporate quotations from the text to support your ideas. Unless you are asked to refer to outside sources, focus on extracting information from the text itself. Use specific quotations to support your analysis. However, don’t let your use of quotations dominate the page or drown out your own voice and ideas.