After you have completed one or more drafts of your narrative essay, use the following checklist as a revision and editing guide to prepare the final version of your composition.
- In your introduction, have you clearly identified the experience you are about to relate?
- In the opening sentences of your essay, have you provided the kinds of details that will evoke your readers' interest in the topic?
- Have you clearly explained who was involved and when and where the incident occurred?
- Have you organized the sequence of events in chronological order?
- Have you focused your essay by eliminating unnecessary or repetitious information?
- Have you used precise descriptive details to make your narrative interesting and convincing?
- Have you used dialogue to report important conversations?
- Have you used clear transitions (in particular, time signals) to tie your points together and guide your readers from one point to the next?
- In your conclusion, have you clearly explained the particular significance of the experience you have related in the essay?
- Are the sentences throughout your essay clear and direct as well as varied in length and structure? Could any sentences be improved by combining or restructuring them?
- Are the words in your essay consistently clear and precise? Does the essay maintain a consistent tone?
- Have you read the essay aloud, proofreading carefully?
