| A Well-Supported Argument |
My argument seems superficial or thin.
- Develop your ideas by connecting them.
- Link your ideas to make a chain of reasoning.
- Connect to a literary motif or theme.
- Add textual evidence by quoting, paraphrasing, or summarizing important passages.
- Focus on the writer’s choice of words, explaining how particular word choices support your ideas.
- Consider using other kinds of support, such as information about the story’s historical or cultural context.
The connection between a reason and its support seems vague.
- Explain why the support illustrates the point you are making.
- Explain what the quoted words imply–their connotative as well as their denotative meanings.
- Introduce quotations, and follow them with some analysis or explanation.
- Explain more fully and clearly how your reasons relate logically to one another as well as to your thesis.
- Fill in the gaps.
- Use contradictions or gaps to extend or complicate your argument.
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