• A presentation of the issue. The issue should be some claim people might disagree about (e.g., “Everyone lies” or “There are non-human persons”), and you should explain what you take to be “at issue”—i.e., what the difference between the two sides is and why it is important.

• Ties to each of two works. You should note a detail—e.g., a passage, an event, a character—in each of two works, with the two details tied to different sides of the issue. These details might be passages offering arguments for the two sides, or they might examples that might be cited as part such an arguments. In either case, you should explain the argument you have in mind (either to interpret the passage from the works in which you find it or to show how the example from the works might used in an argument).

• A discussion of what these ties tell us about the issue. There are a number of forms this can take. You might evaluate the relative strengths of the two arguments, perhaps concluding on that basis that one of the two sides is correct or simply noting the different strengths and weaknesses found in the two sides. Alternatively, you might find that the two examples (or two arguments) show that the issue isn’t as simple as it first appeared: perhaps a distinction needs to be made (e.g., between kinds of lying or senses of ‘person’).