Create an argument about a reading, imagine how other people read it and offer your response in which you disagree with their interpretation. Here is an example of how you could develop an argument about the story of Adam and Eve (in the Book of Genesis):
1.Find an important question to discuss about the text. For example, if you read the story of Adam and Eve, you might wonder whether God knew about the serpent’s plan to corrupt people. Did God know about the serpent’s plans?
2. Show two different ways of answering the question: Perhaps some readers of the story will say that God did not know about the serpent’s plans. You, on the other hand, might say that God actually know about the serpent’s plans.
3.State your argument in one sentence.Here is the basic formula: Many readers of [the work’s title] seem to believe that the serpent acted independently of God, but I argue that he acted with God’s tacit approval. It is important that the argument shows the contrast between what you want to a) disprove and b) prove.
4.Compile evidence from the text to support both sides of your argument.
5. Write an introduction. Using the argument you have designed earlier (step 3), write a more detailed introduction that includes your argument:
The opening of the Book of Genesis, which describes Adam’s and Eve’s downfall, raises the question whether God knew about the serpent’s plan to corrupt people. Readers of the story are likely to conclude that God, the force for good, could not possibly be associated with the serpent and therefore he must have not known about serpent’s plans. In this view, the serpent acts alone and independently of God. Such an interpretation, however, ignores the possibility that the serpent probably acted with God’s tacit approval. Thus, it can be argued that God knew about the serpent’s plans but chose not to stop him.
6. The rest of the essay falls roughly into two parts, in which you consider two sides of the argument. a)God didn’t know. .. [explain]. b)God knew. . . [explain].
It often happens that while you read something, you ask yourself a question that has two fairly convincing but conflicting answers. In the case of Genesis, did the serpent act independently of God?
