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Questions to Ask Yourself When Revising an Essay:
(from Sylvan Barnet's A Short Guide to Writing About Art, inside
cover)
- Have I studied
the object with sufficient care so that I understand what qualities
in it caused my initial response, and have I studied it with sufficient
care so that I have deepened or otherwise changed that response?
- Is the title
of my essay at least moderately informative?
- Is the opening
paragraph interesting, and by its end, have I focused on the topic?
- Is the work
of art identified as precisely as possible (artist, material,
location, date, etc.)?
- Do I state
my point (thesis) soon enough--perhaps even in the title--and
do I keep it in view?
- Is the organization
reasonable? Does each point lead into the next, without irrelevancies
and without anticlimaxes?
- Is each
paragraph unified by a topic sentence or topic idea?
- Are generalizations
and assertions about personal responses supported by references
to concrete details in the work?
- Are the
sentences concise, clear, and emphatic? Are needless words and
inflated language eliminated?
- Is the concluding
paragraph conclusive without being repetitive?
- Are the
dates and quotations accurate? Is credit given to sources? Are
photocopies of works of art included and properly captioned?
- Are the
long quotations really necessary? Can some be shortened (either
by ellipses or by summarizing them) without loss?
- Has the
essay been proofread? Are the spelling and punctuation correct?
Is the title of the essay in proper form? Are the titles of works
of art--other than architecture--underlined? If there are any
footnotes, are they in proper form?
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