Writing does not transcribe a finished thought — it finishes one. Run a timed freewrite below (the pad catches you when you stall and, if you want, refuses to let you delete). Then feed your own sentences to the scanner and see whether what you produced is a slogan or a claim someone could actually argue with.
1 · Generative drafting
Pick something you half-understand
Set the clock
0words
5:00left
0wpm
0stalls
Nothing is written yet. That is the normal starting condition — it is an argument for starting the timer, not for waiting until you know what you think.
2 · Believing and doubting
Peter Elbow’s move, and it is uncomfortable by design. Write four sentences defending the position you disagree with, then four attacking your own. You are not changing your mind — you are finding the counterargument now, while there is still time to answer it.
Believe the other side
0 of 4 sentences
Doubt your own
0 of 4 sentences
The sentences you find hardest to write here are the ones your reader will write for you in the margin.
3 · Sentence lab
Stop the freewrite and your text breaks into sentences here. Click any one to run it through the arguability scanner — the same read a reader gives it in half a second.
4 · Arguability report
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This scanner is rough on purpose — it looks for the features of a claim, not for truth. Use it the way a reader does: if nothing here can be disagreed with on specific grounds, the sentence is still a slogan, however true it feels.