Before editing a connected passage, answer five questions. (1) What proposition or action is expressed? (2) What does the audience dispute or lack? (3) Is the next clause emphasis, explanation, cause, or an independent coordinate assertion? (4) Which meaning changes if words are removed or added? (5) What evidence supports the proposed reading?
PassageDecisive evidence
Library reportDifferent scope for state and restriction
Promise dialogueOccurrence versus timing
Mail narrativeCause versus temporal outcome
CounselPersuasive reason and prudent limit
Administrative letterConsequence from problem to action
If competing rhetorical analyses remain plausible, name the evidence for each instead of choosing one dogmatically. That is how close reading becomes an accountable argument rather than a list of technical labels.