Revision & Editing Checklist
–– Revision ––
Content & Organization
☐ My introduction includes an academic hook, sufficient background information, and a one-sentence
thesis statement at the end.
☐ My thesis statement makes an argument, chooses a side, and is specific enough.
☐ My topic sentences all clearly introduce a new subtopic supporting my thesis, and none of my
subtopics overlap with one another.
☐ Starting with the second topic sentence, my topic sentences include sophisticated transitions.
☐ Each body paragraph contains sufficient supporting evidence that backs up my topic sentence.
☐ The supporting evidence in my body paragraphs does not rely on assumptions, generalizations,
personal anecdotes, or faulty logic.
☐ My conclusion restates my thesis in a new way, and leaves my reader with a sense of the significance
of my argument.
Research
☐ I use the minimum required number of sources in my paper.
☐ Some of my references are academic, peer-reviewed articles from scholarly journals (the library
databases).
☐ My website references are only from .org, .gov, or .edu URLs.
☐ I use more than one source per body paragraph.
☐ I use the “quote sandwich” formula for all of my quotes and paraphrases.
☐ I do more paraphrasing than quoting.
–– Editing ––
Style
☐ My paper includes no personal pronouns – I, me, my, mine, you, your, yours, we, us, our, ours.
☐ My paper includes no contractions – don’t, can’t, won’t, haven’t, etc.
☐ My paper includes no vague or cliché words or phrases such as: a lot, huge, good, more and more, as a
matter of fact, all in all, at the end of the day, this day and age, etc.
☐ None of my sentences are unnecessarily wordy.
☐ My overall tone is formal. It never sounds like I’m having a chat with my reader.
APA
☐ My document is formatted in APA style with 1-inch margins, Times New Roman 12-point font,
double spacing, page numbering, a title page, and indented paragraphs.
☐ My references are on a separate page at the end of my document.
☐ My references are listed in alphabetical order.
☐ I include a reference entry for every single source that I cite in my paper.
☐ Every single source that is in my references is cited at least once in my paper.
☐ My references are formatted in correct APA style.
☐ All of my quoted sentences include a citation, and all my citations for quotes include the following:
o Author(s) or organization name if no author is available
o Year or n.d. if no date is available
o Page number or paragraph number if no page numbers are available
☐ All of my paraphrases include a citation, and all my citations for paraphrases include the following:
o Author(s) or organization name if no author is available
o Year or n.d. if no date is available
Grammar & Mechanics
☐ My paper does not contain any fragments (incomplete sentences), run-on sentences, or
awkward/confusing sentence constructions.
☐ My paper does not contain any capitalization errors.
☐ My paper does not contain any spelling errors.
