Some of the things you choose to read were written simply to entertain you. Others are supposed to inform you about a topic. And still others are meant to persuade you to think or act in a certain way. This last type of writing may include an argument―a claim followed by evidence.

Arguments aren’t just for topics like the seriousness of global warming or the reasons for adopting a pet instead of buying one. You can also write an argument about a story you’ve read. That’s what Jason’s teacher asked him to do after he finished reading the novel Tuck Everlasting.

Fortunately, this wasn’t the first time that Jason had written this kind of essay, so he knew exactly what to do.

First, he summarized what happened in Tuck Everlasting.

“A young girl named Winnie Foster is kidnapped by members of the Tuck family. At first, Winnie is afraid, but she soon gets to know the family and learns that they have a big secret: Long ago they all drank from a magic spring that keeps them from dying. When Jesse Tuck falls in love with Winnie, he wants her to drink the water, too, so that they can always be together. A man who hopes to profit from the spring shows up, and the Tuck family is forced to leave town. Winnie must decide for herself what she will do”

After he’d written the summary, Jason made a list of the important topics in the novel. He decided that one of the book’s most important topics was immortality. So Jason tried to decide what the author of Tuck Everlasting wanted to say about immortality.

The novel’s events showed that there are definitely disadvantages to living forever and never growing old, especially if the people around you are aging normally. Specifically, it can be very lonely.

Jason wrote his idea for the novel’s theme this way:

“Be careful what you wish for ― it can turn out worse than you could have imagined.”

Once Jason had identified one of the novel’s themes, his next step was to look for specific details that would support or provide proof for his statement about the novel’s theme. He recalled that the Tuck family members explained that people treated them differently because they seemed so odd compared to everyone else. In fact, people were so suspicious of the Tucks that the family had to stay on the run all the time. Another piece of evidence was an important plot event: The wife of one of the Tuck brothers left him when she found out his secret.

When he had gathered all of his evidence, Jason wrote a claim statement for the beginning of his argument:

“In Tuck Everlasting, the words and experiences of the characters show that you should be careful what you wish for.”

With his claim statement out of the way, Jason began to explain why he thought his idea about the theme was true―by providing evidence from the novel. Here’s what Jason wrote:

“Miles’s account of how he lost his wife and children shows one big disadvantage of getting a wish like immortality granted: ‘[S]he finally made up her mind I'd sold my soul to the Devil,’ Miles says. Other members of the Tuck family described how their agelessness has cut them off from friends who found it hard to relate to them.”

Jason described a few more scenes from Tuck Everlasting and submitted his draft to his teacher. He knew that he would need to tweak a few sentences here and there, but he was confident that he had written the kind of argument his teacher expected. And along the way, he had learned a lot more about the novel’s deeper meaning.