Reflecting on Opinion Essays

Questions to Ask About Your Essay Overall

• Have I started my composition with a sentence that will catch my reader's attention?
• Is my topic sentence near the beginning of the essay?
• Have I organized my points in the most effective order?
• Do my examples, details, and facts support the points they are intended to support?
• Have I included transitional expressions to help my essay move smoothly from one point to another?
• Are my sentences varied in length and type? (Simple, compound, complex, parallel)
• Do I have an effective conclusion?

New idea

• An even better idea is . . .
• An important point I haven't considered yet is . .
• A better argument would be . . .
• A different aspect would be . . .
• A whole new way to think of this topic is . . .
• No one will have thought of . . .

Elaborate or Expand

• An example of this . . .
• This is true, but it's not sufficient, so . .
• My own feelings about this are . . .
• l'll change this a little by . . .
• The reason I think so . . .
• Another reason that's good . . .
• l could develop this idea by adding . . .
• Another way to put it would be . . .
• A good point on the other side of the argument is . . .

Goals

• A goal I think I could write to . . .
• My purpose is . . .

Improve

• I'm not being very clear about what I just wrote so . . .
• I could make my main point clear . . .
• A criticism I should deal with in my paper is . . .
• l really think this isn't necessary because . . .
• l'm getting off topic so . . .
• This isn't very convincing because . . .
• But many readers won't agree that . . .
• To liven this up l'll . . .

Putting it together

• If I want to start off with my second strongest idea l'll . . .
• l can tie this together by . . .
• My main point is . . .