Checklist: Drafting the Explication
A checklist for drafting the explication.
ENGLISH 11AP - Language and Literature
Checklist - Drafting the Explication
Name
Objective: to convince your readers that your understanding of a work is valid and important and to lead them to share that understanding.
BEFORE YOU WRITE ANYTHING
- 1. Did you read the poem more than once?
- 2. Did you mull over the meaning?
PREWRITING
- 3. Did you jot down your ideas as they occurred to you (including words, phrases, and lines from the poem)?
- 4. Did you make connections between your ideas before you began to write?
- 5. Did you formulate a thesis that clearly expresses in one sentence what you wish to say about that subject before you began to write?
- 6. Did you organize your ideas into the order that will best support your thesis before you began to write?
- 7. Did you evaluate your rough outline? Was anything necessary missing? Was anything unnecessary included?
WRITING THE FIRST DRAFT
- 8. Did you swiftly write the first draft, using the rough outline as a blueprint?
- 9. Did you ignore sentence structure, grammar, diction, spelling, or verification of sources in your initial draft?
- 10. Did you write down alternatives without deleting your earlier versions?