Tips for doing better on American History and Film Exams

1. Always revise and edit your essays.
   
   
2. Do you have a strong, clear thesis?
   
   
3. Do you have strong supporting arguments that are tied
   back to your main thesis?
   
   
4. Do you have transitions between each of your supporting
   arguments?
   
   
5. Do you have strong, clear, effective introductions and
   conclusions?
   
   
6. Do you give strong, clear examples to support each of your
   arguments?
   
   
7. Does your essay have a strong over-riding thesis and larger
   argument that holds your paper together?
   
   
8. Have you successfully answered the exam question? Go
   back and read the questions and make sure that is what
   your paper attempts to answer.
   
   
9. Re-read your paper to see if your argument would be
   clear to an "ignorant audience."  Are you just writing for
   the professor, who obviously will know what you are
   talking about?
   
   
10. Have you demonstrated and explained each of your main
    points?  Stating an argument isn't the same as explaining
    and developing an argument.