As you read and annotate a text, make sure you understand its thesis, or central claim. Ask yourself: “What is the author’s thesis? What is being argued?” Then put the author’s thesis to the “So what?” test: “Why does this thesis matter? Why does it need to be argued?”

Perhaps you’ll conclude that the thesis is too obvious and doesn’t matter at all—or that it matters so much that you feel the author stopped short and overlooked key details. Or perhaps you’ll feel that a reasonable person might draw different conclusions about the issue. You’ll be in a stronger position to analyze a text after putting its thesis to the “So what?” test.