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• A Correctly Formatted MLA Heading

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• Page numbers with your last name

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• A well-written title

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• A thorough introduction

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• A thesis statement at the end of your introduction

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• Indented all of your paragraphs

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• Strictly written in third person (or first person if your professor allows it, but NEVER second person)

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• Written in present tense when discussing events that happen in literature

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• A topic sentence at the beginning of each body paragraph

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• A concluding sentence at the end of each body paragraph.

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• Parenthetical Citations after anything you quoted or paraphrased from another source (normally at least one in every body paragraph)

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• Segues with your quotes

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• Pronouns with clear antecedents 

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• Read your essay aloud to another living human so that you know it makes sense

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• A thorough conclusion

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• A Works Cited Page

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• The words Works Cited on your Works Cited page with no special formatting such as bold, italics, or quotation marks

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• Alphabetized all of the sources on your Works Cited Page by the author's last name or the title of the article/book/essay (if there is no author)

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• Included Author, Title, and Publication info for every source if that info is available.