Now, for this last step of the Close Reading exercise, you will revisit your first draft and use a checklist to determine how your essay might be revised or improved upon.
Remember that your submission for this final essay will count as a substantial part of your final grade for the course. So, look at each item in the following checklist, and make any necessary changes to your first draft. If you meet all of the guidelines in the checklist, then your essay should represent a thoughtful, well-organized, well-supported and balanced, yet compelling argument regarding global warming.
____ Is there a clear introductory paragraph for the essay?
____ Does the introductory paragraph clearly state your claim about global warming?
____ Do all of the main and supporting ideas connect back to your claim?
____ Are the main ideas clear and concise?
____ Does the order of the essay make sense?
____ Does each main idea lead or flow smoothly into the next idea?
____ Are transitional words or phrases used to guide readers through the main ideas?
____ Is the evidence (facts that support your claim) accurate, sufficient, and relevant?
____ Does the evidence include appropriate scientific and mathematical data?
____ Does the evidence come from at least three different sources?
____ Is the evidence properly cited within the text, and properly compiled in the Research Organizer? (Within your essay, you may use citations that simply refer to the author of a resource that appears in your Research Organizer. However, you may click here for proper MLA citation procedures, or click here for a sample MLA works cited page (which incidentally deals with global warming).
____ Is the evidence properly introduced and explained in your own words?
____ Is the tone of the essay formal and persuasive, yet objective enough (including counterclaims) to be credible?
____ Is the purpose of the essay clear? Does the essay achieve this purpose?
____ Is there a clear, concise, and convincing concluding paragraph that appropriately ends the essay?
When you complete all revisions to your first draft, and you are sure that your final draft is ready for submission to your instructor, be sure to click the SUBMIT button so that your instructor receives all of the work that you saved in Step 1 and Step 3, as well as what you completed here in Step 4. Your work will not be submitted to your instructor unless you click the SUBMIT button. You should also save your work in a separate word-processing document so that you have a copy of it outside of the course.
After you submit all of your work, the last step will be to upload your Research Organizer in the next activity of this lesson.
[We are learning a Close Reading Project On Climate Change. and I am so very confused on this.]
