Research/Synthesis Essay

Revising and Editing Checklist

PART I: Academic Word Choice and Language

1. Highlight in GREEN all CONTRACTIONS (cant, wont, dont, theyre couldnt, ETC)

a. ACTION Replace all contractions with the correctly spelled out two words
(cant = cannot, wont = will not, dont = do not, theyre = they are, couldnt = could not)
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2. Highlight in GREEN all NON-ACADEMIC VOCABULARY (could of, should of, aint, fixin to, ETC)

a. ACTION Replace all non-academic vocabulary with academic vocabulary

(could of = could have, should of = should have, aint = is not, fixin to = about to, ETC)
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3. HIGHLIGHT IN GREEN all SECOND PERSON POINT OF VIEW (you, your, youre, ETC)

a. ACTION replace with non-second person point of view, you may have to re-write the sentence. Instead of
you replace with more specific words like: Society, people, ETC
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PART II: Writing Fluency

4. HIGHLIGHT in YELLOW your three topic sentences (first sentence of paragraphs 3, 4, and 5)

a. ACTION UNDERLINE the topic of the paragraph in the topic sentence

(threat to society, danger to international relationships, unknown long-term consequences, ETC)

IF YOU CANNOT UNDERLINE THE TOPIC, you need to re-write your topic sentence, making
sure that you introduce the topic of the paragraph.

b. ACTION UNDERLINE the TRANSITION WORD used at the beginning of your TOPIC SENTENCES.

The following are a list of useful TRANSITION WORDS for TOPIC SENTENCES:
(note they are to be used as a set)

1. One reason / Another reason / A final reason

2. First / Second / Finally
3. The first reason / Furthermore / Finally
4. there are many other optionsfeel free to come up with your own set!

5. HIGHLIGHT in PINK your INTEGRATED QUOTES, there should be 3 per paragraph

a. ACTION Re-read the sentences to make sure that you have used style a, b, c, or d from the How to
Properly Integrate Quotes handout.

If you did not use one of these quote integration techniques, RE-WRITE the sentences to use one of the
techniques.

Your paper should NOT read, For example, in the article, it says.. NOT GOOD WRITING!
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6. Re-read your essay, paragraph by paragraph.
a. ACTION Stop at the end of each paragraph to make sure that the paragraph makes sense and has proper
punctuation. If the paragraph sounds confusing, off topic, or out of order, then REVISE the sentences to make
more sense!