WRITING AN ESSAY AND A SHORT STORY / 107 ‘tightened’ by deleting words or changing your sentence construction. Remember to write in ‘proper English’. Avoid totally any temptation to use colloquial or ‘texting’ language popular on mobile phones. Checking the essay ◆ Check your spelling. ◆ Check your punctuation. ◆ Is each paragraph indented the same amount of space? ◆ Have you begun your dialogue with a new paragraph? ◆ Have you kept to the same tense throughout? (Most essays and stories are written in the past tense.) ◆ In your short story have you kept to the same ‘person’ throughout? Is it written in the first or the third person? (See Chapter 1.) ◆ Have you used colloquial language? ◆ Before writing or typing your fair copy, look to see if you can replace any words with better ones. Make sure you haven’t repeated words unnecessarily. ◆ Keep to the point and keep the title in front of you at all times. ◆ Write notes in your own words. Don’t copy from a book. ◆ Keep notes brief. ◆ Make a bibliography. ◆ Plan your work carefully.