ESSAY WRITING AND OVERALL CHECKLIST
1. WRITING YOUR PARAGRAPHS AND REVISING YOUR ESSAY
Refer to the following on-line guide from TRENT UNIVERSITY to help WRITE and REVISE your
essay properly.
http://www.trentu.ca/history/workbook/strongparagraphs.php
Along the left-hand side navigate through the following topics:
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Writing Strong Paragraphs, Introductions and Conclusions
Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Quoting
Revising your Essay
2. USING QUOTES AND CITING YOUR SOURCES
Using CHICAGO STYLE citation in your history essay? Use the Trent University website
(Footnotes and Bibliographies link) to help you do this properly. On that page you will see
another link to that will show you how to insert footnotes using Word.
If you are using MLA use the guide provided in the library or use an on line resource such as
this website: http://library.concordia.ca/help/howto/mla.php?guid=intro
To see a SAMPLE works cited page follow this link:
http://www.library.mun.ca/guides/howto/SampleMLAStyleWorksCited.pdf
3. OVERALL CHECKLIST: Did you….
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Include DATES? This is a History Essay. Dates are needed!
Double space your essay
Create a header to NUMBER all pages
Create a title page (name, course code, date, teacher’s name)
Use a 12 font and a crisp font
Check for informal language like slang and clichés
Check that you have NOT used the words OUR, WE, US, I,
Eliminate any exaggerated language (stay away from calling anyone in history the BEST
or GREATEST….instead say “one of the best or one of the greatest”
 Eliminate WORDY or FLOWERY language. Using a thesaurus is good….confusing the
reader with too many words is NOT good. Get to the point in a CLEAR way and use
thesaurus words PROPERLY.
 Use transition words to begin each new paragraph (i.e To begin, Furthermore, In
addition)
OR
 Use transitional SENTENCES to end one paragraph and introduce the next (Just as
Socrates left an indelible mark on Greek society, so too did his contemporary
Hippocrates)
 Use transition words within each paragraph to establish flow (also, as well, as one can
see, clearly, evidently)
 Included properly written TOPIC and CONCLUDING SENTENCES for each of the body
paragrahs
 Use Chicago Style FOOTNOTES and BIBLIOGRAPHY format (no ENDNOTES pls)
OR
 Use MLA citation and included a Works Cited page