General Checklist for your paper.

1) MLA format (including a Works Cited page & in-text citations).

2) Clear thesis at the end of the introduction.

3) Concise, clear topic sentences at the top of every paragraph.
(Can topic sentences be more than one sentence? Yes.)

4) You must incorporate at least two sources you have researched on your own.

5) In mentioning points from these sources in your essay, at least one point must be paraphrased.

6) Quotes must be correctly integrated.

7) For most of your body paragraphs (in any paragraph in which you are making a point with any depth), you must use A/B/C constructions. Please note that in this paper, the "B" might be a number of things--specific descriptions of the film, a point from a secondary source, a quote from "The Metamorphosis."

8) You must have a transitionial paragraph between the two sections of the paper.

9) You must use words/phrases that indicate similarity, or difference--compare/contrast.
http://www.studygs.net/wrtstr6.htm
http://jc-schools.net/write/transition.htm

Also...
*Your paper must be proofed & spell-checked. Nothing sloppy.
*Do not use any variation of "can be" in either thesis or topic sentences, ("it can be seen,"
"this can be related," etc.)
*Avoid the general "you."