Thesis or focus:
Write a one-sentence explanation or summary of what the paper is about?

Audience and purpose:
1.   What is the paper's audience and does it effectively communicate to this audience?
2.   What is the paper's purpose and is does the paper accomplish this purpose?

Organization:
1.  Does the paper progress in an organized, logical way?
2.  Go through the paper and jot down notes on the topics of the various paragraphs. Look at this list and see if you can think of a better organization.
3.  Make a brief outline. Does the organization make sense? Should any part be moved to another part?
4.  At the end of each paragraph, can you tell where the paper is headed. If the paper goes in a direction other than the one forecasted by the reader, how should the writer revise?

Development:
1.  Are there places in the paper where more details, examples, or specifics are needed?
2.  Do any paragraphs seem much shorter and in need of more material than others?

Sentence structure, punctuation, word choice, spelling
1.  Are there a few problems that frequently occur? Keep a list of problems that recur and check for those.
2.  Read the paper aloud to see and hear if there are any missing or wrong words or other errors that you can spot.
3.  Ask why you put punctuation marks in certain places.  Does the author need to check any punctuation rules?
 4.  For possible spelling errors, proofread backwards, from the end of a line to the beginning.