It’s important that you understand precisely what you want your readers to believe or do before you begin drafting. Your overall claim — the heart of the argument you want to make — will serve as a touchstone as you juggle the complexities of crafting an argument. Your claim should take into account your purpose as a writer, the conversation you’ve decided to join, and the readers you hope to convince or persuade.

You can begin to define your overall claim by brainstorming or freewriting in response to the following questions:

Review what you’ve written. Then try to express, in one or two sentences, your overall claim. Later, your claim can serve as the basis for a thesis statement (see Chapter 14). For now, use it to direct your thinking about the argument you want to formulate.