Characterization EssayRough Draft – Individual Check

MLA Formatting• 1” margins• Double-spaced (without the 10 pt After on each line)• Heading on the first page• Date done differently – use due date • Header with your last name and page number – same font and

size as the rest of the paper.• Title (not underlined, not italicized, not bold, not a bigger font)• If you use Sunrise over Fallujah in your title, it needs to be

italicized• Times New Roman – 11 or 12 point font (If you copied and

pasted, highlight your whole paper and change it. Check the color.)

Introduction• Highlight your attention-getter in one color, your thesis statement

in another color and your preview statement in a third color.• Do you have an attention-getter? Is it catchy?• Is your thesis statement one sentence?• Does your thesis statement have the author and title in it?• Is the title italicized?• Do you have the correct commas in the thesis? • In Sunrise over Fallujah, by Walter Dean Myers, Jonesy is…

• Does your thesis statement connect to the prompt? Is the idea of characterization and the character you chose included?

• Is your preview statement one sentence?• Does it clearly list/show your three body paragraphs in order?• Is that all you have in your introduction? Everything else needs to

go.

Body Paragraphs• Highlight each topic sentence• Is it a claim? Is it a broad statement that tells me what your paragraph is

about?• Do you have evidence? Do you have correct number of direct quotes

and paraphrases?• Do you have parenthetical citations? (Myers #).• Is the period after the citation and not at the end of the quote/sentence?• For direct quotes, are your quotation marks with the quote and not after

the citations?• Do you explain your evidence (reasoning)?• In your explanation, do you explain how the evidence creates the

personality trait and how Myers does this through direct or indirect characterization? Do you explain how the characterization (action, dialogue or emotion) creates that character trait?

• Do you transition to the next paragraph?

Conclusion• Do you include your thesis in new wording?• Does your conclusion summarize all three of your body

paragraphs?• Do you tie back to your attention getter?

Works Cited• Is the page properly formatted?• Works Cited centered at the top of the page• Citation double spaced with a hanging indent

• Is the citation correct? Look back at your R&J notes• Last name, First name. Title. City, State: Publisher, Year. Print.

Back to Black• Turn everything back to black before you turn it in.• If you did any copying and pasting, you may want to double

check that your font and sizes are the same throughout the paper.

• Feel free to have a peer review your paper, or ask Mrs. Compton if you’d like her to look at something specific.