1. What is the topic of the essay?
2. What do we know about the author of the essay? Where and when was the essay published? How do these facts affect our reading of the essay?
3. What is the essays thesis, either stated or implied? At what point in the essay do we know the authors main idea?
4. What does the title do? What purpose does it suggest that the writer holds?
5. What is the function of the opening paragraph (or paragraphs)? What claim on our attention or beliefs does it make?
6. What persona (the writer or speaker in a role adapted for a specific audience) does the writer create, and how does the writer create it? (Another meaning of persona is a mask put on for a performance.)