What does testing a rival reading with a conditional question involve?

• Counting your quotations twice before testing the rival's claim
• Writing the rival paragraph first without checking its needed evidence
• Naming the line the text would need for the rival to win

How do you handle a rival reading honestly?

• State your view, then build the rival at its strongest
• Hide the rival and defend only your own reading from the quotations
• Mock the rival before stating it or testing its evidence

Changing your mind when evidence breaks your reading is a skill.

A rival needs one line the text never gives. What follows?

• The rival fails this test, since those words are absent
• The rival still wins if the writer may have intended it
• Both readings must be dropped because one quotation is missing

Your reading explains four lines, the rival explains two. What do you write?

• Both readings are equal in force because each has some supporting lines
• Yours holds; grant the rival its two lines, then hold your four
• The rival wins, since it is the bolder and more original reading

An alternative reading deserves its own paragraph, judged with shared evidence.

Two readings explain the shared quotations equally well. What is the sharpest move?

• Defend the reading you formed first, since you know its evidence best
• Say the evidence does not settle it and explain the tie
• Pick the more original reading, since an essay needs a clear winner

A student sees three quotations that undermine a reading but keeps it. What failed?

• The student needed more than three quotations before changing anything
• The student stated the reading too clearly and left no room for another view
• The student ignored evidence and would not revise the reading