College Essay Checklist

How to create a College Essay? An easy way to start completing your essay is to download this College Essay Checklist template now!

Every day at college brings loads of knowledge, projects, books, documents, and task lists, and often that may feel overwhelming. Many of our day-to-day tasks are similar to something we have done before. However, don't reinvent the wheel if you need a college essay checklist. Instead learn from what other students did before you:

College Essay Checklist
Directions: Use this checklist as a guide. Check of Directions: f each item when you are sure the essay has satisfied the criteria. Use the space for notes.

Prompt:

Does the essay fully and clearly address the prompt?
Has the writer used the prompt to come up with ideas that are unique and interesting?
As a whole, does the essay “work”? Does it keep the reader’s interest throughout?
Does the essay take any creative risks?
What is the overarching main idea, theme or thesis statement?
Does each paragraph have a main idea that further develops the overall theme?
Are all main ideas supported by details that are concrete, lively and interesting?
Does the writer stay on task and avoid unnecessary tangents?
Is the writer’s voice and tone consistent and interesting throughout?
Does the essay reveal something about the writer?
Does the essay have a definite beginning, middle and conclusion?
Are transitions in place between sentences and paragraphs, making for a smooth read?
Do all sentences “pull their weight”?
Is the essay free of grammatical, spelling and mechanical errors?
Does the essay communicate that the writer is a strong candidate for admission?

There are several vital elements to any successful college essay. This handout will define those elements and show you how to put them together using an outline. Following this format will help you keep your thoughts organized and get your essay underway.

Elements of an Essay

Introduction: Usually an introduction starts broad and narrows down to your specific topic, ending in the thesis. This is your opportunity to establish why readers might be curious about your general topic, catch their attention, or put your essay in context.
Thesis: Your introduction should end with a clear, specific thesis statement,which will tell readers exactly what your paper will be arguing. Each body paragraph will directly and obviously support your thesis.
Body Paragraphs: An essay usually has at least three body paragraphs, and these will be the arguments, evidence, or topics that support your thesis.
Topic Sentences: Each body paragraph will begin with a topic sentence which introduces its topic. All of the information in that paragraph will be clearly and logically related to that topic sentence, which in turn should obviously relate to the thesis.
Support: You use arguments, data, facts, analysis, quotes, anecdotes, examples,
details, etc. to support your topic sentences and flesh out your body paragraphs. A good rule of thumb is to have at least three points to support each topic sentence.
Transitions: An effective essay will show the connection between paragraphs with transitions. These can be the final sentence of each body paragraph or can be integrated into the next topic sentence with transition words.
Conclusion: A conclusion should wrap up your essay, but should not introduce new information or arguments. It should begin with a sentence that looks a lot like your thesis to summarize the general points of the paper as a whole, and then draw your paper neatly to a close.

Instead, we provide this standardized College Essay Checklist template with text and formatting as a starting point to help professionalize the way you are working. Our private, business and legal document templates are regularly screened by professionals. If time or quality is of the essence, this ready-made template can help you to save time and to focus on the topics that really matter!

Using this essay template guarantees you will save time, cost and effort! It comes in Microsoft Office format, is ready to be tailored to your personal needs. Completing your document has never been easier!

Download this College Essay Checklist template now for your own benefit!

DISCLAIMER
Nothing on this site shall be considered legal advice and no attorney-client relationship is established.

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