Checklist

We have used these two checklists in our Christian Writers Workshop. See if they work for you.


Before

1. Is your goal clear and specific?
2. Have you fixed your audience or readers in mind?
3. Are you coming to them as a know-it-all or as a fellow human?
4. Have you gleaned enough material so that you can incarnate your message, telling it in terms of      people (if possible)?
5. Are you setting aside adequate time to organize your ideas and to find just the right words to express them? Especially enough time if your assignment is brief?

After

1.  As your eye falls over the page, do any colorful words or names of people and places stand out?
2.  Is your first sentence short?
3.  Is the first sentence interesting?
4   Does it begin with "There is" or "There was" or "It is" or "It was"? If so, change it.
5.  Is the first paragraph interesting?
6.  Have you used strong, descriptive verbs? Do "is" and "was" appear time and again?
7.  How many "have's" and "has's" choke the pages?
8.  Have you overworked "this", "that" "those" and "these"? Especially "this"?
9.  Is there an obvious antecedent for every pronoun?
10. Are your clauses parallel?
11. Have you used present tense whenever possible?
12. Have you served as eyes, ears, and nose for your reader, telling him what happened in concrete    (raw) terms?
13. How many words can you eliminate from the account without destroying its thought or power?
14. Will the finished message fit well in its context?
15. Would you yourself like to read or hear it?

       ...from Words on Target