Ensure That Your Claim is Debatable

If your interpretive claim is not debatable, it will do little to advance the conversation about your subject. As you review your essay, focus on your interpretive claim, and ask how your readers will react to it. For example, will your interpretive claim lead readers to disagree with you, or will it surprise or shock them? Will it make them think about the subject in a new way? Will it force them to reconsider their assumptions? If you think that your readers might respond by asking “so what?” you should take another look at your claim.